Ultra-long acting
Includes the analogues insulin glargine U300 and degludec, which begin working within 30 to 90 minutes and continues to be active for greater than 24 hours. Combination insulin products
Includes a combination of either fast-acting or short-acting insulin with a longer acting insulin, typically an NPH insulin. The combination products begin to work with the shorter acting insulin (5–15 minutes for fast-acting, and 30 minutes for short acting), and remain active for 16 to 24 hours. There are several variations with different proportions of the mixed insulins (e.g. Novolog Mix 70/30 contains 70% aspart protamine [akin to NPH], and 30% aspart.) Methods of administration
Unlike many medicines, insulin cannot be taken orally at the present time. Like nearly all other proteins introduced into the gastrointestinal tract, it is reduced to fragments (single amino acid components), whereupon all activity is lost. There has been some research into ways to protect insulin from the digestive tract, so that it can be administered in a pill. So far this is entirely experimental. Subcutaneous
Insulin is usually taken as subcutaneous injections by single-use syringes with needles, an insulin pump, or by repeated-use insulin pens with needles. People who wish to reduce repeated skin puncture of insulin injections often use an injection port in conjunction with syringes.The use of subcutaneous injections of insulin is designed to mimic the natural physiological cycle of insulin secretion, while taking into account the various properties of the formulations used such as half-life, onset of action, and duration of action.
had used
1923 Farbwerke Hoechst, one of the forerunners of todays Sanofi Aventis, produces commercial quantities of bovine insulin in Germany
1923 Hans Christian Hagedorn founds the Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium in Denmark – forerunner of todays Novo Nordisk
1923 Constance Collier returns to health after being successfully treated with insulin in Strasbourg
1926 Nordisk receives a Danish charter to produce insulin as a non-profit
1936 Canadians David M. Scott and Albert M. Fisher formulate a zinc insulin mixture at Connaught Laboratories in Toronto and license it to Novo
1936 Hagedorn discovers that adding protamine to insulin prolongs the duration of action of insulin
1946 Nordisk formulates Isophane porcine insulin aka Neutral Protamine Hagedorn or NPH insulin
1946 Nordisk crystallizes a protamine and insulin mixture
1950 Nordisk markets NPH insulin
1953 Novo formulates Lente porcine and bovine insulins by adding zinc for longer lasting insulin
1955 Frederick Sanger determines the amino acid sequence of insulin
1965 Synthesized by total synthesis by Wang Yinglai, Chen-Lu Tsou, et al. 1969 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin solves the crystal structure of insulin by X-ray crystallography
1973 Purified monocomponent (MC) insulin is introduced
1973 The U.S. officially "standardized" insulin sold for human use in the U.S. to U-100 (100 units per milliliter). Prior to that, insulin was sold in different strengths, including U-80 (80 units per milliliter) and U-40 formulations (40 units per milliliter), so the effort to "standardize" the potency aimed to reduce dosage errors and ease doctors job of prescribing insulin for people. Other countries also followed suit.