Our daughter’s insurance is Medicare and Medicaid because (the latter because she has a disability…the former because my husband and I are on Medicare)
We just got a notification from our daughter’s insurance company that her Medicare prescription drug plan will no longer have Humalog in their formulary. As of January 2024, they will allow Lyumjev Insulin Lispro instead.
Does anyone have experience with Lyumjev ? Is it significantly different from Humalog? If so, how?
Hi, yes I used Lyumjev for over a year, pumping with Omnipod. It is faster onset and shorter duration than Humalog, and definitely not considered equivalent. If your daughter has an endo they should be asked to prescribe an insulin to substitute for the Humalog.
October 15 - December 7 2023 is the Medicare open enrollment period, so during this short window you can find a plan that has Humalog on their formulary for 2024. You might even find that you can get a better deal for all her medications by reviewing available plans. Medicare has a helpful tool as a starting place to list all her medications, usage by medication for the year, and her zip code. You will get a pretty comprehensive list of insurers that have her medications on their formulary, including the annual cost of the plan, the cost of her medications, and copays sorted from the highest-cost insurer to the lowest. I realize this does not directly answer your question, but it offers you an alternate way to keep the medications she currently uses.
I was on Fiasp (MDI), I find Lyumjev to be faster onset and shorter duration.
I didn’t want to switch but actually like Lyumjev and prefer it.
I am one that Novolog does not work as well as Humalog. I’ve tried Novolog twice and it is slower absorbing than Humalog for me. Those slight chemical differences seem to matter to my system. Lyumjev should be faster than Humalog, and normally most people are happy with that. But it will take some adjustments so it depends how easy that will be for your daughter.
Years ago and before I was on Medicare, my insurance company would change which one, Humalog or Novolog that they would cover for the year. I gather whoever made the best deal with the insurance company that particular year was the one that was covered. I don’t know what leeway you have with the insurance company, but at the time I had to try Novolog and once I knew it didn’t work as well, my doctor was able to write an appeal and get Humalog covered even though it wasn’t on the formulary. I did have to pay a higher price for it though. At the time instead of $100 for a 3 month supply, it was $180. I was fine with that because I definitely preferred Humalog.
With the new rules of insulin being $35 per month, I’m not sure the insurance companies will do that anymore because they might run into problems trying to charge more. Plus advantage plans don’t usually do that either as they have cost cutting systems in place to save money and won’t go outside of their formulary because of that.
But Lyumjev is considered better, one of these days I will try it, but I have also have Afrezza with my Humalog to use. I love Afrezza!
Hearing from you all has been very helpful.
I emailed our daughter’s endo who said that it didn’t make much of a difference. I was surprised by that.
Our daughter is pretty insulin sensitive (and I’m an
“ old dog” who isn’t quick to learn new tricks). My concern is whether Lyumjev might make it harder for me to manage her diabetes, at least for a few weeks. Also, I’m worried I’ll end up feeling compelled (perhaps unnecessarily!!) to tweak the settings on her pump. I’m not terribly confident about doing that under the best of circumstances.
Here is a quick summary of the comparison of Lyumjev vs Humalog. Things to know when you make the switch…:
"*Lyumjev has been shown to be equipotent to Humalog on a unit for unit basis but its effect is more rapid with a shorter duration of
action.
• Onset of action of Lyumjev was 20 minutes post dose, 11 minutes faster than Humalog.
• During the first 30 minutes post dose, Lyumjev had a 3-fold greater glucose lowering effect
compared to Humalog.
• Maximum glucose-lowering effect of Lyumjev occurred between 1 and 3 hours after injection.
• The late insulin action, from 4 hours until the end of the glucose clamp, was 54 % lower with
Lyumjev than observed with Humalog.
• The duration of action of Lyumjev was 5 hours, 44 minutes shorter than Humalog. "
This summary was from page 11 of this document:
lyumjev-previously-liumjev-epar-product-information_en.pdf (europa.eu)
I think “better” is individual based.
I find novolog best for me, because it matches the timing of how I dose and combine meal choices.
Each time my employer plan switched insulin brand, I needed to retest my dosages and timing.
Eventually I stuck with cash pay mfg for Novolog, at $33 per vial.
Will see what happens when I start MC next year.
Actually Humalog is a genetically altered derivative of human insulin called an analog.
The true human insulin equivalent is Calle humulin. Regular insulin.
Humalog and novolog don’t have the additives thst the super fast acting insulins have , but they are faster than regular humulin or novalin insulin
I LOVE Lyumjev. Difference is it works right away. No waiting like I have to do with humalog. No spikes. My problem is I use an InPen and they do not make Lyumjev cartridges. Used my last pen on a cruise and just like so much better. May go back to Kwick pen Jr because I think they do half units. I can enter manually into InPen. Best of luck
Humalog and Novolog are not indistinguishable for everyone. Only on paper. Novolog is so slow acting on me it’s closer to Regular. Cannot use it.
You “believe that I believe”? how freaking condescending and offensive! Your studies are a sample of 1 …YOU. So glad you are not like the rest of us with your standardized meals and not a slave to your habits. I repeat… Novolog and Humalog are not interchangeable for everyone with equally successful results, despite what it says on paper. This is my experience and as a CDCES with 25 years experience I can assure it was also true for some of my clients
@Daniela1
Lyumjev will make it harder for you to manage your daughters diabetes for a few weeks because a change of insulin does that no matter what.
And you will probably have to tweak the settings on her pump. Knowing this you could pepare yourself and schedule a couple of appointments with a diabetic nurse to help you through the transition.
I have switched from Humalog to Lyumjev myself and Lyumjev is the best insulin I´ve ever used, but that´s just me. If Humalog is working well for you
and your daughter, maybe you could find a way to keep using Humalog. Using her disability as an argument for keeping things that are working well the way they are?
Your doctor is wrong by the way. Lyumjev will work a bit faster and stop working faster than Humalog. Good thing is that Lyumjev tend to minimize spikes after meals.
I wish you luck and hope you find a good solution.
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I just joined this discussion late but wanted to comment. pstud123 I really appreciate your comments btw. I have type 1 diabetes which was fairly well controlled (A1C generally under 6.5) but recently have struggled. Some due to slacking on carb count but also noted that since converting to Lyumjev from Humalog that I seem to have more immediate drops in blood sugar following meal and then spikes about 3 hours later. With humalog its the opposite. Spikes right after and then gradual reduction. I am considering starting to blend the two, not by mixing in my pump, but by injecting Lyumjev with syringe while using Humalog in my pump. When I do that I have to cut the dosage of each but my idea is that by blending (for a higher carb meal) I can prevent higher spikes immediately following meal with Lyumjev but then prevent the spike 3 hours later with the humalog. Since they both use Lispro as the type of insulin this seems ok to me. Not looking for medical advice here but wondered if anyone else tried this and what their results were and what to watch out for. Tried doing this for the first time today with good results. Thanks
I do this with Lyumjev (manual injection) and NovoRapid (pump) for dinner. I was getting a drop from NovoRapid (without Lyumjev) after 5 hours, which annoyingly coincided with bedtime. Splitting the bolus about 50/50 works for me.
Thanks for the reply. That is helpful to know.