June 25, 2014 – Insulin expense

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:06 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead: New insulins are helpful but expensive, Elizabeth Tracey reports

New types of insulin known as analogs got a lot of attention at the recent American Diabetes Association meeting, but with all their glitter there is a note of caution.  That’s according to Rita Kalyani, a diabetes expert at Johns Hopkins.

Kalyani:  As might be expected with the introduction of analog insulin therapy we are seeing that the costs go up, and what the true implications of this are are not clear.  It’s what you might expect, now that we’re seeing some of these fancier insulins if you will, but we do prefer to use them in the clinical setting because of their more flexible dosing, less hypoglycemia in some cases with the long acting insulins.  It continues to emphasize the need to look at the costs of the medications we’re prescribing and know how to best address this rising financial burden.   :32

Kalyani says people who are overburdened with the cost of diabetes care simply stop using drugs and supplies, with often deleterious consequences.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.