Ohio Residents Still Struggling To Find Insulin Amid Shortage

A month later and diabetics across Ohio are struggling to fill their prescriptions.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly was the first to commercialize insulin just 101 years ago in 1923. Today drug manufacturers Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, and Eli Lilly are the world's top 3 largest producers of insulin.

With only 3 pharmaceutical companies in the world mass-producing insulin, when something goes wrong all patients are forced to feel the effects. That's exactly what's happening in the Midwest right now in states like Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and the rest of the nation.

Just weeks ago Eli Lilly announced two of its widely used insulin formulations would become temporarily unavailable in the coming weeks: Humalog and insulin lispro (generic).

The shortage was expected to last through mid-April but as a Type 1 Diabetic who uses Humalog myself I can tell you firsthand that is not the case. Here's the most recent update the pharmaceutical company shared,

All Lilly insulins are available in the U.S. for patients living with diabetes, including 10 mL vials of Humalog® (insulin lispro injection) 100 units/mL and Insulin Lispro Injection 100 units/mL. But, the market and supply chain continue to be dynamic, so some pharmacies may still experience intermittent outages

I can't tell you how many posts I've seen in all my diabetic Facebook groups venting about their struggles and worries. Though I'll choose to keep them anonymous here are some examples what diabetics across the nation are saying:

• "Anybody happen to have humalog insulin to spare they legit have a shortage everywhere" - Youngstown, Ohio

• "they suggest switching brands. It’s not that easy to sit on the phone for countless hours to be told they’ll file an appeal and contact the physician who’s already bombarded with documentation and wait for someone sitting behind a desk to play Russian roulette with people’s lives. This is unacceptable." - Duncan, South Carolina

• "Our insurance company informed us that they no longer will cover Humalog insulin and they will now only cover Lispro insulin. And Lispro has had a shortage ever since. Every month, I have to call around to the pharmacies in the metro area and hope they have a vial of insulin. Then repeat the next month. This month, no one has any." - Lenexa, KS