Incorporated by the Unified Health System (SUS) in 2019, the long-acting analogue insulinssimilar to human insulins indicated for the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus, are not available in health posts and units. To demand an effective response from the government and try to resolve the issue that harms thousands of Brazilians, the Coalition Vozes do Advocacy, which integrates 26 diabetes organizations in the country, created the “Where’s My Insulin” campaign.
According to the organization, the Ministry of Health itself recognized that this type of insulin is the most suitable medicine to treat people with type 1 diabetes. Now, the Diabetes Associations and the Brazilian Diabetes Society are working to demand a positioning of the folder so that the situation is regularized.
“The Ministry of Health has disrespected its ordinance on the availability of technologies after approval by its Committee, within 180 days of publication in the Official Gazette. This type of measure deprives Brazilians of access to the most efficient technologies that can be decisive in preventing, in the case of diabetes, hypoglycemia, hospitalizations and even deaths”, says Vanessa Pirolo, coordinator of the Vozes do Advocacy coalition.
According to her, the number of hypoglycemias can be reduced by replacing the older NPH insulin, made available by the government, with long-acting analogue insulin, which has a much more stable action. “We need the Ministry of Health to speed up the purchase of long-acting analogue insulins to give Brazilians with type 1 diabetes what they are entitled to. Diabetes associations came together to run a campaign to raise awareness about the purchase and, at the same time, have analogous insulins in Primary Care, in order to facilitate access to them”, she adds.
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Insulin thrown in the trash
Another struggle for the institution concerns NPH insulin, which the Ministry of Health chose to make available in the Specialized Component, that is, for people to have access, they must go through an endocrinologist and collect it at Specific Dispensing Units, a process made difficult by a series of bureaucracies.
As a result, 7,921,005 3ml pens were purchased, with estimated consumption in one year, to cover 396,050 people with type 1 diabetes in Brazil. But, according to the Coalition Vozes do Advocacy, there was a lot of waste of the product, with around 1.4 million pens thrown in the trash.
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Also according to the organization, throughout 2022 more than 13 meetings were held between the entity and responsible health bodies to try to transfer NPH insulin to Primary (Basic) Care, which ended up not happening due to a series of factors, including the lack of refrigeration in Health Units.
According to the Brazilian Diabetes Society, there are currently more than 13 million people living with the disease in Brazil, which represents 6.9% of the national population.
When contacted, the Ministry of Health did not respond to VEJA’s contact until the closing of this article.
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