When it comes to patients, Novo Nordisk appears to have something of a tin ear. Last month, the Danish drugmaker yanked a diabetes product from Greece after the government instituted substantial price cuts, which Novo Nordisk claimed would cause it to lose money. Since then, a resolution was found - Greece agreed to rollback some of its price cut - but not before Novo Nordisk was lambasted by a patient group for insensitivity (see here and here).

Now, the Danish drugmaker is angering some 90,000 diabetics in the UK. How so? Novo Nordisk recently announced that its Mixtard 30 insulin treatment will be withdrawn by the end of the year. Douglas Smallwood, who heads Diabetes UK, says there is no need to panic, but is not pleased. “We are very disappointed about this withdrawal as it is not in the best interests of people with diabetes,” he says in a statement. “We think this is wrong and asked Novo Nordisk to reconsider their decision…but they argued they are committed to withdrawing all older types of human insulin over time. We then asked for a longer withdrawal period to ensure a properly co-ordinated response to this, but that proposal was also turned down.”

Mixtard 30 belongs to a category of insulin that is cheaper for the UK’s National Health Service, but is just as effective as a newer, more expensive generation of drugs, The Herald Scotland writes. Guidelines issued earlier this year noted that hundreds of thousands of dollars could be saved if more patients used the older form of insulin.

“A lot of people on Mixtard 30 have been on it for 10 to 15 years. Those people will not want to change their insulin. It is inconvenient for them. They would need more diabetes nurse specialist input. They would have to do extra blood testing,” Michael Small, a physician at Glasgow’s Garnavel General Hospital, tells the paper. “It would create extra workload for a number of months, especially for some clinics where a lot of patients are on it. It would create significant pressures for them.”

A Novo Nordisk spokesman tells the paper that its product line-up is continually reviewed as “newer, more innovative insulins are introduced,” and these changes will be communicated in a “timely and professional manner. We believe it is imperative that any communication is done in a way that minimizes patient concern and ensures that healthcare ­professionals have the appropriate information.” Yet, as the paper points out, Novo Nordisk was criticized five years ago for giving just five months’ notice before withdrawing an insulin treatment. Timely and professional?