What the benefactors say
04 Apr 2007
1
Most insulin dependent diabetics use, on an average, between 20 and 40 units of insulin a day. Each 10-ml vial of insulin contains 400 units of insulin. This works out to about Rs 435 a month for human insulin users, Rs375 for porcine insulin users and Rs 210 for bovine insulin users.
- Viren Bhatt, who lives in Vashi, a Navi Mumbai borough, has been an insulin dependent diabetic for many years now. He says diabetes runs in his family. Bhatt is presently using human insulin manufactured by Eli Lilly. He spends Rs 360 every 10 days on insulin — an annual expenditure of Rs 13,140 on insulin.
- Ramesh B uses Mixtard porcine insulin. This costs Rs 129.35 for a 10-ml vial. One vial last him about 20 days. His annual expenditure on insulin is about Rs 2,500.
- Most of the chemists, who were contacted, said they stock insulin marketed by Nova, Mixtard and Eli Lilly. All of them maintained that porcine and bovine insulin aren't available anymore and said practically all their patients use human insulin. Curiously, when asked, all the chemists were completely ignorant about the new Wockhardt insulin and said it is not possible that human insulin can be made available for Rs 129.
