Insulin Products in Canada

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The Issue

Animal-sourced and human biosynthetic insulins are used worldwide for controlling diabetes. Recently there have been concerns regarding the availability of animal-sourced insulins for those patients who have difficulty using human biosynthetic insulin.

Background

Generally speaking, there are two types of insulin: animal-sourced insulin, and biosynthetic human insulin. Historically, preparations of beef, pork and beef-pork insulins were used for managing diabetes. These animal-sourced insulins have been used safely for many years, and are still being used safely.

The first genetically engineered human insulin, called biosynthetic human insulin or recombinant or DNA-derived insulin, was manufactured by Eli Lilly and approved for sale in Canada in 1983. In 1993, another biosynthetic human insulin made by Novo Nordisk was approved. Prior to approval and sale in Canada, a thorough review of the products' effectiveness, safety and quality was done. The conclusion was that human biosynthetic insulins could be used as safely as animal-sourced insulins.

Understanding Possible Reactions to Insulin

When biological matter such as insulin is introduced into the human body, the body may recognize it as foreign and begin manufacturing antibodies to fight it. In some cases, this process results i