60% of type 2 diabetics who use insulin would switch to a less expensive biosimilar insulin if available

Decision ResourcesDec 24 2010

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that 60 percent of surveyed type 2 diabetes patients in the U.S. who currently use insulin indicate they would request that their doctor switch them to a less expensive biosimilar insulin if such an agent became available.

The new Patient Forum report entitled Patient Forum in Type 2 Diabetes: Patients' resistance to injectable agents may cause challenges for emerging GLP-1 analogues finds that although most surveyed type 2 diabetes patients indicate that they have some form of prescription coverage associated with their insurance, patients taking insulin report that they feel their disease is a greater financial burden compared to other patient segments. The majority of surveyed insulin users indicate they are also taking at least one oral antidiabetic, resulting in multiple copayments each month, increasing the monthly out-of-pocket cost for these patients.

"In addition, since patients who take insulin are generally advised to check their blood glucose at least twice each day, the cost of the necessary equipment such as test strips and glucose meters also contributes to a greater financial burden for insulin patients," said Decision Resources Program Manager Jennifer Moniz Carpenter, M.B.A.

Surveyed users of Amylin/Eli Lilly's Byetta are the most likely to request a switch to an agent that is injected once a week or once a month, suggesting that these patients may request a switch to an emerging GLP-1 analogue with improved dosing if they become aware of the drug.

"Amylin and Eli Lilly may be able to avoid loss of sales to other emerging GLP-1 analogues by campaigning for physicians to switch current Byetta users to the extended-release formulation, Bydureon, when the drug becomes available," Ms. Moniz Carpenter said.