May 31, 2008

Great Vial Experiment Appears to be a Bust

Levermir placed in the purchased sterile vial appears to get cloudly and lose potency after 3 days. So perhaps what the pharmacist told me, that they coat the vials with something special, is true.

3 comments:

Scott S said...

I have no doubt that is true; the insulin you have just bought was likley manufactured over 12 months ago at Novo's plant in Denmark (they only make Novolin in North Carolina, although they were reportedly going to begin production of Novolog there as well) but Levemir is still new and not yet reached critical mass in terms of sales in North America. However, as Allie Beatty reported, the content of preservatives in insulin sold today is toxic to small animals, so one really must wonder whether its really safe for humans, too!

Anne said...

I know you were disappointed the experiment did not work. Is it the air that causes the insulin to lose potency?

Jenny said...

Beats me what the problem was. It may have something to do with the seal on the vial, which is butyl.

One huge problem was that the seal is very thick and pushing the needle through it dulled it, making it painful to inject with it.

But what exactly was causing it to go bad is hard to say. It lost its clarity which you could see by shining a bright light through it.