Join the "Don't Drop Mixtard 30" Campaign - sign the petition

Dear Sir,

The drug company Novo Nordisk plans to withdraw its insulin product Mixtard 30 from the UK at the end of this year – a move that we believe will adversely affect the wellbeing of many people with diabetes and add millions to NHS costs.

Mixtard 30 is a biphasic human insulin, currently used by an estimated 90,000 people in the UK. It is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as a treatment of choice. And, crucially, scientific evidence indicates that alternative ‘analogue’ forms of insulin, promoted by the company, such as NovoMix 30, are neither more effective nor safer.

But they are much more expensive, with one estimate suggesting that a straight switch to NovoMix 30 for patients in England alone would add around £9 million to the NHS drugs bill. And this figure takes no account of other added cost pressures. These include the need to review many thousands of patients to switch treatment, some of whom will need many months to become established on an alternative insulin.

The withdrawal of Mixtard 30 also signals the end to the availability of a biphasic insulin in an ergonomically designed device, and this could leave many users with eyesight and manual dexterity problems dependent on others to help them take their insulin.

Of note, Mixtard 30 has never been available in the UK (unlike in Germany) in the FlexPen, an injecting device very popular among people with diabetes. If it had, perhaps the decline in sales of Mixtard 30 in recent years, cited by the company as a reason to discontinue it, might have been avoided.

Like over 1,000 signatories to the ‘Don’t Drop Mixtard 30’ campaign petition, we are alarmed by Novo Nordisk’s attitude to people with diabetes who rely on Mixtard 30. We urge the company to reverse a decision that is simply not in the interests of patients, healthcare professionals or the NHS.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Ike Iheanacho, editor of Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin; Edwin Gale, emeritus professor of Diabetic Medicine at the University of Bristol; Geoff Gill, professor of international medicine at the University of Liverpool; Jenny Hirst, co-chair of Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust; Harry Keen, emeritus professor of human metabolism at Guy’s Hospital; and John Yudkin, emeritus professor of medicine at University College London.

Sign their petition.