? Basaglar insulin pens (cheaper than Lantus?!)

My cat has Diabetes II. He's mainly been on Lantus for the last 2 years. For the past year he's been on Lantus, currently on 4 units. Since Lantus is so expensive, (I was given the below information on Basaglar as an alternative) that Basaglar pens are much more affordable. I'm anxious to change bc I'm so accostomed to using Lantus and don't want to risk making an (over)dosing mistake even though I'm extremely careful, always.

If anyone has any tips or advice or experience with the Basaglar pens can you please let me know? thank you so much!


Basaglar is out now...it's not technically a generic, it's a 'biosimilar'
of Glargine, as it has the same amino acid sequence as Glargine. They're
not giving it away...it's about $300 for a pack of 5 pens vs about $400
for a pack of 5 Glargine pens.

If you buy a pack of 5 pens, keep them in the fridge, opening them
one-at-a-time, and keep an open pen for about 4 months (some people even
keep an open pen for 6 months)....then that pack is actually cheap insulin
e.g. if the pack lasts 20 months, that's $20/month for Glargine. But the
initial outlay is steep...

 

Most of us are buying our Lantus from Canada because it's so much cheaper.

Marks Marine Pharmacy is great and has saved a lot of kitty lives here!! They also have Basaglar for a lot cheaper!!

Here's the information on buying insulin from Canada

I was the first person to try Basaglar so that we'd have some experience with it. My own cat had been on Lantus for several years so I compared them so we'd have some idea what would happen.

It is dosed the exact same way as Lantus, so if you've been using Lantus, you shouldn't notice any big difference.

The one thing I did notice was that I had to "start over" on filling the depot.....it took 5-7 days before China's numbers settled back down to where I expected them to be

 

Thank you so much Chris, I so appreciate your sharing that information! Can you please tell me, what does "depot" mean? and do you use the Basaglar pens? Thank you!!

 

@lovemycat444 Your avatar just popped up because I follow you and because I haven't seen you in a while I clicked on it. That automatically shows where you are in the forum. Sorry, it's not snooping, it just shows up. The thread Insulin / Canadian pharmacies is very old. Started in 2010, last message is 4 years old so it may not be relevant anymore.

 

Hey Noah Dickson....the last message is mine and I keep that one updated with the latest prices and information

 

Nuts. The thread said closed to further.... Just trying to help and could not type or think fast enough. My bad.

 

Hi Noah thanks for the message! and Chris thank you too! Chris, do you think Basaglar pens are good to use vs. Lantus & syringes? Thank you so much!

 

Both Lantus and Basaglar are "depot" insulins....that means that they're kind of like a "timed-release" medication.

Here's some great information to help explain the "Depot"

I did for awhile so that the people here would be able to see how it compared to Lantus. Since it was brand new, somebody had to try it first!!

Since China is VERY tightly regulated, I figured she was the perfect test subject because if Basaglar was going to act any differently, it'd show up in her numbers!!

I didn't use the "pen mechanism", just like I don't use the pen mechanism in the Lantus pens...I pull the insulin out of the pen with regular insulin syringes

 

No worries at all!! If I came off as being short with you, I didn't mean it.....Like you, I couldn't type fast enough and had seen the follow up questions and wanted to get back to answering those.

Since it was my message, I'm still allowed to "edit" it. I was worried about it too when the thread was closed to further replies, but I can still "edit" the original.

 

That's so great to know this Chris! Also, currently do you use Lantus pens and not Basaglar? It sounds like you currently use Lantus? and pull out the insulin from the pens. I think that's a great idea. I'll do this if I use the pens. I'm afraid of the pens being on a set dosing but that there is room for potential OD error.

 

Yes, the Basaglar was supplied to me for testing purposes, but China's always been on Lantus so when we were done with the Basaglar trial, we went back to Lantus because that's what I had a script for!

I buy from Marks, so the price difference wasn't big enough for me to battle with the vet to get a new script for Basaglar.

None of us use the pen mechanism here because it only allows changes in whole unit increments. By using regular insulin syringes, we can do dose changes in much smaller increments so we can really "dial-in" the best dose.

Dose changes need to be made in .25 unit increments....the pen mechanism doesn't allow that

 

Life is too short to get offended here. Noah is the one in the fridge, he adopted me, Dickson.