The international medical charity Doctors Without Borders has called on leading pharmaceutical corporations and "all insulin manufacturers" to urgently increase access to diabetes treatment in low- and middle-income countries by making insulin pen injection devices available at US$1.
In a statement, the group said 80% of people with diabetes live in low- and middle-income countries, "where access to insulin pens is extremely limited due primarily to high prices".
It noted that people with diabetes in South Africa, for example, which pioneered a shift towards the use of insulin in pens in the public sector by replacing insulin in vials with pens, "had to ration insulin pens earlier this year when Novo Nordisk stopped selling human insulin pens to the South African government".
The Diabetes Association of Nigeria has warned that six million people living with diabetes in the country are facing an "existential threat", due to the "skyrocketing" cost of healthcare. The association urged the Nigerian government, "as a matter of urgency", to subsidize diabetes medications to make them more affordable to the growing population of people with the disease.
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