cost of pen: I am Indian american. I was in India and picked up a years supply of lantus. There the 3ML pen retails for $14. Not only that they (Novortis, lilly and the gang) has separated insulin cartridge from pen. So if you have pen (6) then you can buy the insulin cartridge for 9-10. This drop the effective price even more. pen needle: Here in USA, the doctors (on recommedation of big pharma) tell you to use pen needles only once. I wanted to buy about 500 pen needles because I paid $58 for 100 needles here after insurance paid their share. There was a intern sitting there, she asked me why you want to buy that many? Then she added," you can use these needles at least 3 times if not more", She further elaborated (freely) that only time you need to throw away the needle is when you hit a blood vessel. In India people use reuse needles all the time.
Syringes: I have personally used syringes for insulin al least 10 times for last 11-12 years. I never had insulin vial contaminated. I threw away syringe when I hit the blood vessel. For some time I rinsed the needle in distill water. Here, in USA, pharma (and doctors) tell you to use syringe only once. I was told in 2004 by a good friend in Ohio that a an old fashioned MD told hime to reuse syringes and as precaution, if you so desire, rinse it with distill water.
I am just sharing my experience and highlight the hidden motivations of some and casual “follow the crowd” mentality by others. We the consumer pay.
If govt of India can negotiate such discounts, why not our government???
I also get my supplies from time to time in India and use cartridges with pen needles. If you use a fast acting insulin like Humalog, you can re-use pen needles for about 80- 100 injections. The problem with long acting insulin like Lantus/Levemir is that the insulin is quite thick and plugs up the needles after a few uses. If you use pen needle with long acting insulin and then flush out the needle with fast acting like Humalog, you can use the same needle for several weeks. If you only use fast acting insulin, this is not a problem.
Humalog cartridges are available in the US but Lantus cartridges are not. If you need Lantus cartridges, the fastest and cheapest place to get them is from a Canadian pharmacy as they are available in Canada.
I use digital pens which are made in Korea but can be imported into US from Germany. They dose to 0.1u. As a backup, I always have a few cheap Huma Lilly cartridge pens as well as the much better Lilly Luxura pen that doses in 0.5u available in India at a very low cost.
In general, American’s get brand new medications first, but we pay a ton more overall. Thats sorta the deal that exists, under the table, I think. We pay for access, kinda. So, new meds will be for sale and available to Americans long before India. But, we pay a ton and they make a ton of money upfront before they expand sales throughout the world.
90 count pen needles at Costco are $28 a box, no insurance. I buy them for my dog still.
Syringes are pretty cheap there too, I just don’t remember the price.
It’s been two years since I bought a box of 100 syringes, but they were always under $12 at Walmart for the B-D ones, i could sometimes get generic ones for less, but they were harder to handle.
I’ve never used a pen, always syringes/vials pre-pump. I always reused syringes, but with a purpose. It was part of my “did i take my insulin?” strategy. I’d leave the syringe on my bathroom counter after the morning injection. No syringe on the counter in the morning meant I hadn’t done so yet. I destroyed that same syringe after using it a second time for my evening dose. Syringe still on the counter in the evening meant I still needed to take insulin. Had a different vial of insulin and syringes that lived in my purse for daytime boluses, and those needles I’d use until they developed a burr/hook at the tip.
