Designer Insulin

The BBC report on a BMJ article about analogue insulins, saying:

The NHS could have saved £625m over 10 years if the older types of insulin recommended in guidelines had been prescribed, claim UK researchers.

Apparently, if the NHS had used the current NICE guidelines fewer diabetics would have been prescribed analogue insulin and would be prescribed human insulin instead. Analogue insulin cost three times as much as the equivalent human insulin.

I take the cheaper human insulin. When I was prescribed analogue insulin there was very little consultation, very few checks, the doctor simply said that "it will be better for you". This happened twice (for my basal and short acting insulin). Each time I used it for two years, found that it wasn't "better for me" and went back to the human insulin. At this point there was no attempt from the doctor to find out why I had chosen to reject the analogue insulin, so I assume they really didn't mind one way or the other.

So basically I had had two years taking an insulin that neither I, nor the doctor thought was "better" for me. So basically I agree with the conclusion that it was a waste of money (and the large effort by me trying to get a good blood sugar).