Lilly to discontinue four insulin products

Leading US drug firm Eli Lilly says that it is discontinuing production of four of its insulin products - Iletin II Pork Insulin (regular and NPH formulations), and Humulin U Ultralente and Humulin L Lente (Humulin U and Humulin L). Given current inventories and patient demand, these products should be available in pharmacies through the end of 2005, the company said.

"Over the past few decades, there has been a great deal of innovation in insulin therapy, such as rapid-acting analogs, analog mixtures, basal analogs and other human insulin products and formulations. As a result, we've seen a significant and steady decline in usage of the products we're discontinuing as doctors continue to move their patients towards newer therapies," said Scott Jacober, medical advisor, Diabetes Care, at Lilly.

While over 3.5 million patients with diabetes in the USA currently use insulin, Lilly estimates that less than 2% of these will be affected by the discontinuations.