Time to fill another 3 month prescription. I found that Apidra is not on my insurance formulary this year. Are Humalog and NovoLog the only other Rapid insulins in 2020? Are Fiasp and Insulin Aspart also Rapid?
Formulary shows NovoLog FlexPen, Penfill, Fiasp and Insulin Aspart. Which would be best substitute for Apidra or react even faster? Yes, I will consult with doctor but desire your input.
Appears that FlexPen is the similar to Apidra Solostar. Also shows the Short insulin Humulin R U-500 KwikPen but each unit would be equal to 5 units U-100 so with sliding scale of 1 unit, this could be dangerous.?
Fiasp is what you’re looking for.
Fiasp is Novolog with an “accelerator” built in, so in that regard it might act a bit more like Apidra which has a slightly quicker onset than Novolog or Humalog, but might not have the relatively shorter tail like Apidra.
For me, Apidra has about 80% the efficacy of either Novolog or Humalog, meaning I have to take more units of Apidra for the same effect.
I’ve been forced to switch back and forth between Novolog and Humalog over the years and find them pretty comparable, though I like the Novolog pens better (I do MDI). If you are highly insulin resistant, a U-500 formulation would make sense, but otherwise I’d stick to U-100 options.
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U500 is typically only used when someone is on very large doses of insulin (about 200 units a day, some providers may use it on a little less than that but general rule of thumb is people on at least 200 units a day). U500 is just R BUT there is something about it being concentrated that makes not act like U100 R. It’s profile is different.
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