Our position on the withdrawal of bovine insulin

Bovine insulin preparations are being withdrawn from the end of 2017, due to limited availability of the active ingredient.

People treated with Bovine Insulin will still continue to require insulin therapy and will, therefore, need to be changed to an alternative. These people are in a high-risk group as they are likely to be from an older population with a longer duration of diabetes and have absolute insulin deficiency. They will be at higher risk of hypoglycaemia during the transition to an alternative insulin.

Caution during a transition of insulin treatment is paramount and should be supervised by a diabetes specialist multidisciplinary team.

The person with diabetes should be involved in the decision when choosing which alternative insulin to use.

People with diabetes should be supported to self-monitor blood glucose during the transition and a dose reduction of 10% should be considered.

We have developed this position statement in consultation with experts working in the NHS. 

Download our position statement