Insulins and Insulin Delivery Devices

Abstract Insulin is the life-saving treatment in type 1 diabetes, and increasingly used to treat advanced type 2 diabetes. Over the years there have been improvements and alterations in insulin treatment, moving from animal-derived insulin, through recombinant human insulin to genetically modified analogue insulins to help support people with diabetes to achieve better glucose control. Improved insulin delivery through insulin pens and more complex devices such as insulin pumps have helped improve quality of life and biomedical outcomes such as lower HbA1c and reduced hypoglycaemia. In this chapter we will describe currently available insulins with a focus on clinical trials that demonstrate differences relevant to individual users. We go on to discuss the wide variety of devices used to administer these insulins together with a discussion of their relative advantages and disadvantages.