They are often given as samples for free there. I have received several from our endo clinic. But they can also be purchased with prescription in a pharmacy. I purchased several in the past 6 months at CVS. They do need a prescription.
Without prescription:
I have purchased several Luxura HD in Canada online (for Humalog). But, for some reason, I have not been able to find the Novopen Echo (for Novolog) for purchase online in Canada.
Overall, my favorite is the Echo, because of the electronic readout that keeps track of the last injection. However, for build quality, you canāt beat the Luxura HD, it is a beauty!
@Jen, I will start playing around with building tables on Discourse and write a wiki to explain how to do it if I can figure out a good way. It would be great to be able to do it easily.
Do you like it? I tried it but couldnāt find myself trusting it. It felt flimsy, and it was silent. The Luxura HD feels solid in the hand, and its click is reassuring. (Totally subjective, I know.)
In Canada, Fiasp is available in all three versions.
Iāve never had to purchase an insulin pen. I always get it for free from my endo, diabetes clinic, or pharmacy. Iām not sure if our government healthcare is covering the cost, whether theyāre just given away here, or whether Iāve just been lucky.
Beacher, I much prefer the Novo pen 4. The Savvio feels cheap, like it wonāt be durable long term. I suspect it is cheaper to manufacture than the luxura HD.
Of the above ones, the only one capable of 1/2 unit, refillable, AND last dose information is Echo. For someone who forgets where I left my keys, itās a no brainer. I suppose if one were looking for the most compact one capable of half unit dose, that would be the junior. This is SO helpful. I doubt that any of us had the experience where the healthcare professional asked us, āWhat benefits are you seeking in your insulin delivery system, memory, 1/2 unit or compact size?ā Healthcare must be one of the most user unfriendly industries ever! Thanks Eric for putting this together!!
I second you on Healthcare being one of the most unfriendly Industries!
On another note, does anyone have dimensions for Levemir flextouch pens? (edit: I suspect they are the same thing as the Novolog FlexPen listed by Eric above) I used to use them but switched to reusable pans recently, so no longer have this information.
sort of off topic, but I called both Lilyās help line to see if I could figure out how to obtain a Luxura HD, since Iāve not had the best luck in Canada, so far. They said I need to have the Dr write a prescription, and get it from the pharmacy. I asked why a prescription was needed, since I already have a prescript for the Humalog, and syringes donāt require a prescription in my state. Makes no sense. It is company policy.
So, I called my local walmart pharmacy to see if they could even order such a thing in, and what it would cost, prior to pestering my physician. They didnāt have the Luxura HD in their system, so didnāt know the cost. I inquired about a NovoPen Echo, out of curiosity, since it was in their system. The full price in their system (no insurance) was around $82 for the NovoPen Echo! Not interested at this price point, with high deductible insurance.
Iāve now decided on my remedy: order a box of Kwikpen Juniors next time (based on recommendation from @Eric), a couple vials of Humalog, and forget about the Luxura HD altogether.
I typically am a law and order man,. But I must say this ā ā ā ā ā ā me off. The only thing it does is decrease access to cheaper meds for the American public.
You can still get the cartridges from Canada, for about $100 for 5 cartridges, for either the Luxura or the EchoPen. And you can re-use the cartridges and load from vials, which would be cheap.
The pen itself may be available from other places in Canada besides the one that got shutdown.
But worst case, the pens are a one-time purchase, and same for the cartridges since they are re-usable. So it is a bit of a money outlay to start, but cheap to keep them going after thatā¦
Worth checking out, @mike_g . The loading of syringes is a bit more time consuming. I think you would like the ease of the pens.
I use 3 different types of disposable pens.
The Luxura HD, the Novopen Echo, and the Savvio.
From a practical standpoint, the whole last dosage/time thing on the Echo is highly over rated as far as I am concerned. I will qualify that by saying that I do indeed use a tracking logbook app religiously, which actually predates my switch to insulin therapy as a T2. The other disadvantage is that the proprietary cartridges for the Echo will only fit other Novopens, which are much more costly to obtain OOP than the Lily line of reusable pens. This cost becomes significant if you intend to use these types of dispensing pens for more than one type of insulin and are paying OOP.
My favorite is the Luxura HD, which I use for either Novolog, Admelog, or Novolin R dosing. I purchase these insulins in 10ml vials, and refill the cartridges scavenged from Lantus Solostar pens, which fit quite nicely in the Luxura or Savvio pens.
The dosing action on the Luxura HD is smooth as silk, even more so than the Novopen, and decidedly smoother than the Savvio.
The Savvio, with itās full unit dosing, which maxes out at 60, is still a bit problematic for me, since my daily Lantus dose is 70 units. I had originally addressed the dosage limitation by splitting the daily dose into 2, delivered 12 hours apart. By my endo recently strongly advised me that one big daily dose is actually more effective than 2 smaller doses. So now I still take two doses, but at the same time, in any combination that totals my 70 unit requirement.
I would love to give the regular Luxura pen a try, on the off chance that itās delivery action is as smooth as the HD variant. One day I will find one in stock somewhere and give it a go. With the exception of the one Novopen Echo, which was covered by my insurance, all of the other pens have been out of pocket purchases, because my insurance company is really aggressive about not covering the more expensive insulin delivery methods for T2s. Vials and syringes are really all they want to cover without a complicated series of pre-authorization/requalification paperwork that ultimately means they suspend coverage multiple times a year, which effectively reduces their total overall expense and leaves me scrambling to acquire enough insulin for my daily MDI schedule.
Yup, thatās the way to go. I will say, that one of the reasons that Iāve just stayed with dosing 1.5 units consistently, and if need be, add 1.5 units to adjust for additional carbs has to do with short term memory recall. With all the calculations that we do eyeballing carb content of food, time to peak of insulinā¦etc. I appreciate the memory feature of the Echo Pen, even if it only remembers the most recent dose. I did not realize the price difference between the two pens. Novo has a battery, I assume, whereas the Luxura does not. Iāve heard horror stories of folks who have used their bolus for basal, and vice versa, by mistake. I have multiple alarms set on my phone.
The following is for sure, being a well controlled diabetic usually means: that weāre very disciplined, resourceful, intellectually curious, organized, and MOST OF ALL UNLIMITED!!
When we were in Canada, we were told we could get a free pen every time we bought insulin. But no pharmacy we went to ever had the Echo or the Luxura HD. We assumed that the āfree penā rule did not apply to premium pens.
