Study on Modern Trends In Microbiology With Special Reference to Human Health

Comparative analysis of synthetic human insulin and animal insulin in the treatment of diabetes

Abstract

The first genetically engineered products were medicinesdesigned to treat human diseases. To cite one example, in  Genentechdeveloped synthetic humanized insulin by joining its gene with a plasmid vectorinserted into the bacterium Escherichia coli. Insulin, widelyused for the treatment of diabetes, was previously extracted from the pancreasof abattoiranimals The resulting genetically engineered bacterium enabled the productionof vast quantities of synthetic human insulin at relatively low cost. Accordingto a 2003 study undertaken by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) onthe access to and availability of insulin in its member countries, synthetic'human' insulin is considerably more expensive in most countries where bothsynthetic 'human' and animal insulin are commercially available: e.g. withinEuropean countries the average price of synthetic 'human' insulin was twice ashigh as the price of pork insulin. Yet in its position statement, the IDFwrites that "there is no overwhelming evidence to prefer one species ofinsulin over another" and "[modern, highly purified] animal insulinsremain a perfectly acceptable alternative.