Shortages in the Supply Chain affecting Insulin

FILE PHOTO: Insulin supplies are pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri FILE PHOTO: Insulin supplies are pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Rev 6:6 NAS “And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Insulin shortage might be next supply chain crisis
  • According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there are 37.3 million people with diabetes in the U.S. which is 11 percent of the U.S. population. An additional 96 million over the age of 18 have prediabetes. 7.4 million Americans with diabetes use one or more formulations of insulin and this number is growing. Unfortunately, the insulin supply is not. Just the opposite, in fact.
  • The FDA announced just before the pandemic started, in February, 2020, that there was going to be a drug shortage including insulin due to the initial COVID outbreak in China. Insulin prices have skyrocketed 600 percent in the past 20 years, and at least three states, California, Washington, and Maine, have been passing legislation with the intention of producing their own insulin
  • The insulin supply chain involves the delivery of insulin to patients and the flow of payments back. There are multiple middlemen that clog up the chain, and the monopolies of the three major companies involved, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, and Eli Lilly, is part of the problem, as it is with baby formula.
  • The solution is multi-faceted and it includes more generics, biosimilars, public production, federal reserve, management algorithms and slow replacement of insulin with newer drugs which both help control diabetes and also decrease hunger and weight, a handy “two-for” which decreases insulin requirements

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