Does anyone know if you can purchase generic Humalog in Canada? If so, is it significantly cheaper than brand name Humalog? If not, any plans for Canada to approve it soon?
I don’t know the answer to your question exactly, but if your interest in the generic is simply because of cost, I can tell you that the non-generic Humalog is extremely cheap in Canada compared to the U.S.
I’ve bought Humalog from Canada. Crazy cheap!
Let’s flag down some Canadians who can give you a better answer.
There are a few more but my mind is fuzzy on all the names at the moment.
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My interest is specifically in the cost. I have bought Humalog from Canada because of the crazy low cost. I was excited to think that with generic Humalog being labeled now, the cost will drop even more!
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I haven’t heard of any on the market. The formulary for my provincial public drug plan lists 41 insulin products, and all of them are brand-name. Given that public plans tend to like lower-cost and/or generic drugs, I suspect they’d be included if they existed. Also given the lowish cost to begin with, I don’t sense there’s any great rush to bring any to market.
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We do have Admelog approved, which is a biosimilar of Humalog. It might be cheaper, since I believe Basaglar (a biosimilar of Lantus) is cheaper than Lantus. But I don’t know anyone who’s using it and am not totally sure it’s available, but pretty sure it’s been approved. I also don’t think the price difference is anywhere near what it might be in the US.
The whole situation in the US, with the same company offering both brand-name and generic products that are identical except in price, is baffling to me.
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The name brand is already sold for around the same price people are paying for generic Regular in the United States, so I don’t see this happening anytime soon.
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Baffling to me also.
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I like to think of it more as an insurance policy than an actual strategy. I am not sure anyone is using the generic, but when they get hauled in front of Congress they can say, look at us, we are doing something proactive, no need to regulate further…
Exactly. And, selling the generic for $137 at the pharmacy sure beats selling at Canadian prices. (From manufacturer perspective)
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