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Insulin
Dependent
Diabetes
Trust
 

• 'Human' and Animal insulin - facts and patient's experiences

• Hypoglycaemia and loss of warnings

• 'Dead in Bed' Syndrome or sudden unexplained death

• Changing your insulin

• Lilly Discontinuation of Pork Insulin

• Personal Importation of beef insulin from the UK

• Action times of guman and animal insulins

• Storing of insulin

• 'Human' and Animal Insulin Reviewed - Cochraine Review 2002

• News - maybe important to you!

• Press and other reports

Personal Importation of Beef and Pork Insulin from the UK

Importation of drugs for personal use is allowed when a particular drug is not available in the US. Both beef and pork insulins have been discontinued in the US but people in the US can access the beef and pork insulins they need from the UK by importing for personal use from Wockhardt UK [formerly CP Pharmaceuticals].

Wockhardt beef and pork insulin products are:

Manufactured in a sterile facility designed to specifications of the UK MHRA and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

Wockhardt beef insulin is extracted from the pancreases of cows reared and slaughtered in the USA, where "no cases of BSE have ever been reported", according to the FDA.

To import beef and pork insulins 

Wockhardt UK have expanded the procedure and the numbers of forms that have to be submitted before people can import beef and pork insulins into the United States. The procedure is now more restrictive than the requirements laid down by the FDA, and IDDT has appealed to Wockhardt on the grounds that it makes the procedure more difficult for people in need of animal insulin. However, our appeals have not had any effect.

The details of how to import beef and pork insulins can be found by visiting Wockhardt’s website: www.wockhardt.co.uk

Or you can contact Wockhardt UK as follows:
Wockhardt UK Ltd
Ash Road North
Wrexham Industrial Estate
Wrexham LL13 9UF
UK

Tel +44 1978 661261 toll-free for US, Fax +44 1978 660130

Wockhardt insulins have different names from the United States.

The chart below shows the types of insulin available from Wockhardt, the duration of action and the equivalent U.S. name/type where possible:

The packaging of Hypurin insulins is in braille to help blind and visually impaired people. All the Hypurin insulins are available in 10ml vials and Porcine Neutral, Isophane and 30/70 Mix and bovine Neutral and Isophane are also available in 3.0ml cartridges for use with pen injection devices.

Important Points to Remember:

·         This chart is a guide only and there will be variations with each individual person. 

·         Any change of insulin both type and brand can alter your control especially in the first few days, so you need to monitor more closely.

·         Protamine Zinc / PZI has not been available in the U.S. for a very long time. A number of people have reported that PZI works suitably in place of long acting beef Ultralente insulin.

·         Hypurin Bovine insulins are pure beef insulins and not beef-pork mix like Lilly Iletin I.  As far as we are aware, there are no companies in the world that still produce beef-pork mix insulin. Therefore pure beef insulin may be the most suitable or ‘next closest’ option for people that have been using beef-pork Iletin l and are unable to use of pork or ‘human’ insulins.

   ©2003 Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust | Contact Us | Registered Charity: 1058284