Trends in the use and cost of human and analogue insulins in a Colombian population, 2011-2015

- Analogue insulins are replacing human insulin in patients with diabetes mellitus treated in Colombia.
- Analogue insulins are much more costly to the Colombian health system than human insulins.
- Analogue insulin is associated with a lower risk of hypoglycemia.

ObjectivesDiabetes mellitus is a common disease among the general population and imposes considerable costs on health care systems. Insulin is used to treat type 1 diabetes mellitus and as an adjuvant to oral agents in advanced stages of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The objective was to describe the trends in use and cost of human and analogue insulins for Colombian patients.Study designDescriptive retrospective analysis of prescriptions of human and analogue insulins on a monthly basis for the period from July 1, 2011 to February 2, 2015.MethodsInformation was collected for the database population of two insurance companies. Frequencies and proportions were calculated; estimated economic impact was expressed as net cost and cost per thousand inhabitants per day.ResultsDuring the observation period, there was continuous growth in use of insulin, mainly in analogue forms (34.0% growth). At the start of the study, 10.4% of subjects were using an analogue insulin; this figure was 62.6% at the end of the study. In 2012, the average cost per 1000 inhabitants/day was US$1.7 for analogue and US$0.8 for human insulins. At the end of the observation period these costs had risen to US$9.2 for analogue (441.1% increase) and fallen to US$0.5 for human insulin (58.3% decrease).ConclusionsThere has been an increase in the unit cost and frequency of use of insulin analogues for anti-diabetic therapy in Colombian patients. Moreover, there is controversy over whether insulin analogues are a more cost-effective treatment than human insulins for the general diabetic population.