Improved Disposable Insulin Pen Devices Provide an Alternative to Vials and Syringes for Insulin Administration

Abstract

The prevalence of diabetes has increased so rapidly during the past 30 years that the condition is now a problem of national importance in the United States. It has been estimated that 12.3% of individuals aged 20–79 years in the United States (26.8 million people) have diabetes, and the vast majority of those have type 2 diabetes.1 Diabetes has devastating effects on patient morbidity and mortality that, in turn, place a substantial economic burden on the nation's health care resources. In 2010, an estimated 231,000 deaths among people aged 20–79 years in the United States were attributable to diabetes, and the mean annual health expenditure per person with diabetes was $7,383.1 Morbidity and mortality and the associated costs of treatment in diabetes are primarily due to hyperglycemia; achieving and maintaining optimal glycemic control is important for both patients with type 1 diabetes and those with type 2 diabetes to reduce the risk of developing long-term complications.2,3 Typically, in patients with type 1 diabetes, glycemic control is achieved from the time of diagnosis with insulin, whereas in type 2 diabetes, the addition of insulin to an initial regimen of oral antidiabetes drugs (OADs) is known to confer benefits in terms of reduced risk of long-term complications.4 However, although the importance of maintaining optimal glycemic control in diabetes is well documented, insulin therapy is widely underused in the United States,5 largely because a number of barriers to initiation of and adherence to insulin therapy exist such as fear of injections (including self-injection).6,7 Insulin pen delivery devices such as the SoloSTAR (sanofi-aventis, Paris, France), the FlexPen (Novo Nordisk A/S, Bagsvaerd, Denmark), and the KwikPen (Eli Lilly, Indianapolis, Ind.) are generally recognized as being easier to use and more convenient, with improved medication adherence …