Keystone-SDA
French health authorities reported on Tuesday supply tensions in Europe for two pre-filled insulin cartridges of the Danish laboratory Novo Nordisk, used by several thousand diabetic patients in France.
(Keystone-ATS) The voltages concern the FIASP Pumpcart and Novorapid Pumpcart cartridges at the dosage of 100 units/ml, which are “specifically compatible with the MyLife Ypsopump insulin pump from the Ypsomed manufacturer”, specifies the French drug safety agency (ANSM) in a press release.
Supply problems are linked to “an increase in sales of insulin cartridges, combined with a limited production capacity of the laboratory, which does not temporarily meet demand”.
According to the Novo Nordisk laboratory, tensions are to be expected until the end of 2025 for these injectable solutions used to treat diabetes in adults, adolescents and children, the ANSM said.
Adapter la prescription
In order to reserve stocks for patients already treated, Novo Nordisk asked the prescribers not to start new treatments with FIASP or Novorapid Pumpcart until the end of the difficulties of supplying cartridges.
The ANSM asks doctors “to stop treatment initiations with the Ypsopump pump as long as the situation persists” and to adapt the prescription with “fast or ultra-fast insulin bottles” to fill the pump tank.
“All the member states where the product is marketed are currently affected or risk being affected by the intermittent shortages” of Fiasp Pumpcart and Novorapid, had indicated in May the European Medicines Agency, citing Austria, Belgium, Czechies, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Nords, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.