https://divabetic.org/2017/06/08/transparent-pricing-works-h...

They fear a Congressional inquiry and federal price caps. Normally, you'd expect a new medicine entering the market to get cheaper as the production ramps up, yet it's gone the opposite direction, even after the patent has expired.

Until about 25 years ago, the normal bolus insulin was Regular insulin, which is just like what your body makes. However, injecting it into fat makes it work more slowly, so you'd take it a half hour before eating, and it would peak a couple hours later. Currently bolus insulins are a genetically tweaked version that allows the body to absorb it more quickly, within a few minutes, with a peak in an hour or so. In the human body, there's an even faster phase 1 insulin response, but to get it as a type 1, you'd need to inject insulin into a vein. It can be done, but it is considered extremely dangerous.

Basal insulins are generally regular insulin mixed with something to delay action or modified to do the same. Older ones like NPH needed to be taken roughly every 12 hours, but had a relatively high peak, which sometimes meant you needed to time a snack to deal with that. Newer ones offer a much flatter action curve, and can often be taken just once a day.

Among the speculation is that a blood transfusion may be a viable treatment.