Diabetics in poorer countries are spending on average 10 times more of their income on insulin than people in wealthier states, according to a new survey.
A month’s worth of insulin costs up to 27 days’ salary in Cameroon and 20 days in Nigeria and Myanmar, according to a survey of prices at pharmacies in 47 countries. In upper-middle-income countries, insulin costs an average of four days’ wages.
The snapshot study by the NGO Health Action International was based on glargine: a long-acting insulin used by type 1 diabetics. It comes on the first anniversary, this week, of a pledge made at the World Health Assembly to ensure all type 1 diabetics had affordable access to insulin and blood glucose-monitoring materials.
