The Patent for Lantus is Up. A biosimilar insulin will be available later this year.

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Does the article mention "Basaglar" (currently marketed in Europe as Abasria) as the new alternative to Lantus? It's Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim's new glargine product. In the US, the launch of Basaglar is currently delayed until mid-2016 due to a lawsuit between Sanofi and BI/Lilly over Lantus patent infringement. Once the new insulin is released it's thought the price for Sanofi's Lantus will drop some.

Basaglar has already launched in several international countries (under the brand name Abasria) and is typically priced at a 15%-20% discount relative to Lantus in those markets. I found the last paragraph to be encouraging as far as insulin becoming more affordable in the future:

"Other companies are getting into the game as well. Merck and Samsung Bioepsis announced a partnership in February to develop a “generic” insulin glargine, and phase 3 testing of the drug candidate will begin “soon” for its candidate MK-1293. India-based Biocon also has its own “generic” insulin glargine product, which is already approved in more than ten countries around the world and is beginning a phase 3 trial this year. Despite the uncertainty around legal matters, there is certainly a lot of interest in bringing a cheaper version of insulin glargine to market."

One more question: Any mention of insulin Degludec (marketed under the name Tresiba by Novo Nordisk)?
 
For those of you curious about Basaglar, it finally made it to market in January now that the patent lawsuit between Lilly and Sanofi is settled. I have a friend who was just switched from Lantus to Basaglar by her insurance company and she has noticed no difference between the two. The dosage is the same and even the protein sequence is the same. I am in the process of trying it with Sarge with his vet's blessing. She is awesome :) ECID but so far I have noticed no difference between it and Lantus. I find myself working the tight protocol just the same as I did with Lantus and after the first couple days I about forgot I wasn't using Lantus. I'm still testing but I just wanted to put the word out there that Basaglar maybe another option. Especially as insurance companies and even CVS are dropping Lantus now that a less expensive insulin glargine has made it to market.
 
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