A Decade+ Later, Biosimilar Insulin Is Here

More than a decade ago (the article I published on my blog was originally posted on January 8, 2007 although I began research into the subject the preceding summer, see the article athttp://blog.sstrumello.com/2007/01/business-of-diabetes-real-story-behind.html for more background), I asked a number of very legitimate questions (some of which were later answered, others were not), with the most notable one being about why so many other diabetes medicines had " generics " but insulin did not (in spite of the fact that its patents had expired years ago).  Unfortunately, in my research, I discovered the some of the sordid inner-dysfunction of the U.S. pharmaceutical market, and now, 11 years later, the pharmaceutical industry still behaves as if it was business as usual, making few (if any) fundamental changes, and some downright sleazy operating practices to try and turn a century-old product into a cash cow (although truth be told, the NET margins for insulin have barely increased over time, but list prices have risen by over 1,000% over the past decade alone).  Catch my recent post on the recent price hikes athttp://blog.sstrumello.com/2016/11/changes-in-price-of-insulin-in-graphics.html for a visual -- its simultaneously stunning and sickening.Patents for recombinant DNA (rDNA) biosynthetic human insulin expired years ago, yet no money-savings generic insulin varieties EVER came to market -- and that ' s still true even today.  Initially, the drug industry tri...
Source: Scott's Web Log - Category: Endocrinology Tags: insulin analogs 2018 biogenerics biosimilars Source Type: blogs