Insulin – more data doodling on the “market” - Insulin is a GMO, mRNA injections are not

A few days ago I posted this article:

(100) Some notes on the cost of insulin in the US compared globally - 12 times more expensive for the same solution compared to Norway? (substack.com)

Here are a couple of key takeaways:

“Over 37 million Americans have diabetes, a group of conditions where there is too much sugar in the blood.⁶ Of those patients, over 7 million require some form of insulin, a medication based on the naturally made hormone that helps regulate blood sugar.”

““.. most patients need about two vials of insulin per month or one to two packs of insulin pens. Each pen pack is equivalent to about one and a half vials. As of March 2022, the price for a vial of insulin ranges from $50 to over $1,000, and a pack of pens ranges from $45 to over $600.”

7 million users – paying between 2x$50 and 2x$1,000 for the two vials they need each month or 2 vials per month/1.5 equivalent per pen pack times somewhere between $45 and $600,

7 million users paying between $100 and $500 bucks a month = say $8 billion to 42 billion bucks a year.”

“.. same three suppliers - Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, and Eli Lilly – and the cost in the US is 100 bucks and the cost in Norway (home of Novo Nordisk?) us less than 8 bucks. “

Sanofi is based in France, Eli Lilly in the US. I show Canada to highlight the temptation for bootlegging.

More “stuff” on country pricing here:

Comparing Insulin Prices in the United States to Other Countries: Results from a Price Index Analysis | RAND

Okay, that’s a little context. Just to stress, I am not a medic or involved in the industry in any wat and although I placed the highest marks in the UK for “O” levels as a 16 years old in chemistry, that was many decades ago!

Let’s do a quick comparison of the global lethality of diabetes and C19.

For insulin, from here:

Facts & figures - International Diabetes Federation (idf.org) and here Diabetes (who.int)

“In 2019, diabetes and kidney disease due to diabetes caused an estimated 2 million deaths.”

“Approximately 537 million adults (20-79 years) are living with diabetes.”

For C19 from here, after 3.5 years: COVID - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer (worldometers.info)

Coronavirus Cases: 692,170,546 Deaths: 6,902,992 (I know, I know “case” numbers and deaths with C19 present are complete BS).

So, diabetes is killing people at a higher annual rate than C19, especially now that the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC - pronounced FAKE) is over - and yet, diabetes is not an emergency,

I wonder whether C19 injections interfere with insulin treatments. Seems almost impossible that Remdesivir does not - and yet Remdesivir just received approval for severe renal impairment. Must have been some HUGE kickbacks involved.

I have not been able to find a visual representation of each of the “players” in either the insulin or C19 miRNA injections. What I wanted was the supply chain equivalent of this patent chain published in Nature here: A network analysis of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine patents | Nature Biotechnology

I wonder what Tesla patents are involved?!?

Ok, so we know the manufacturing process for C19 and how it results in breaches of tolerance levels for monkey DNA (SV40) and bacteria. But what about the manufacturing process for insulin?

From here – insulin is a GMO:

How Is Bacteria Genetically Engineered To Produce Insulin? | DiabetesTalk.Net

How are GMO’s manufactured?

“Recombinant DNA Technology Overview of gene cloning:

1. the procedure begins when a plasmid is isolated from a bacterium and

2.DNA carrying a gene of interest is obtained from another cell. The gene of interest could be, for instance, a human gene encoding a protein of medical value or a plant gene conferring resistance to pests.

3. A piece of DNA containing the gene is inserted into the plasmid. The resulting plasmid now consists of recombinant DNA, DNA in which genes from two different sources are combined in vitro into the same DNA molecule.

4. Next, a bacterial cell takes up the plasmid through transformation. 5. This recombination bacterium then reproduces to form a clone of cells (a group of identical Continue reading “

Okay, colour me stupid, but that seems to correlate with a large chunk of the process for making C19 which is NOT regulated as a GMO, but as a “vaccine”. There are a few more steps in the C19 mRNA process, but…

Here is more detail on how specifically insulin is made, taken from here:

Genetic modification: enzymes for making insulin using GMO E.coli (slideshare.net)

“Genetic modification: enzymes for making insulin using GMO E.coli

1. Producing human insulin using a human gene inserted into a bacteria plasmid "Gene Transfer" © David Faure, InThinking www.biology-inthinking.co.uk

2. Restriction Enzymes Restriction enzymes (DNA scissors) Bind to specific DNA sequences Cut the DNA at a specific place Leave 'sticky ends‘ (There are many types of restriction enzyme.)

3. DNA ligase enzyme Joins together DNA strand Connects the sticky ends together Splices the new gene into DNA

4. How to produce insulin - step by step 1. The DNA for insulin is first isolated. 2. A plasmid made of DNA is removed from a bacterial cell. 3. A restriction enzyme cuts the plasmid DNA open, leaving sticky ends. 4. The insulin gene, with complementary sticky ends is added. 5. DNA ligase enzyme splices (joins) together the plasmid DNA and the Insulin DNA. 6. The plasmid (now genetically modified) is inserted back into the bacterium. 7. The bacterium host cell, divides and produces copies of the plasmid? 8. The Bacterium makes human insulin using the gene in the plasmid. 9. The insulin is extracted from the bacterial culture.

Outline of insulin productio n

I have a suspicion that “vats” used to make insulin are “fully depreciated” as they have been in use for years, even decades. I could be wrong, and these “vats” might need to be replaced every year or two. The point is that one of the key components of profitability, the marginal cost of production of a dose of insulin is likely negligible – that is, under 25 cents a dose, compared to the “retail” price of a “capped” 35 bucks. Price gouging at its finest!

This can only exist because insurance companies and and hospital administrators are able to recoup the massive price gouging via insurance premia from bills to patients, whilst suppliers get their “slice of the pie” by charging exorbitant prices to hospitals.

How hard would it be to import say sufficient for 7 million people times 24 vials a year = 168 million vials? 10 mL in each vial (100 units per mL) - call it 100 bucks a vial (not the 35 dollar capped price in Washington State) = annual demand worth around 17 billion bucks? Check my arithmetic here for extrapolations used!

You would expect there to be huge opportunities for providers of insulin to the US to arbitrage the prices in France and Norway, which pre-supposes an active export/import market for insulin AND fungibility of insulin across borders.

Does such a market exist and what is the size of the import/export market in insulin?

From here:

Insulin, in dosage | OEC - The Observatory of Economic Complexity

“Exports in 2021 the top exporters of Insulin, in dosage  were

 Germany ($2.66B), Denmark ($2.59B), France ($2.3B), China ($934M), and Greece ($894M).

Imports In 2021 the top importers of Insulin, in dosage were 

France ($1.89B), United States ($1.83B), Denmark ($1.08B), Germany ($821M), and China ($645M).

Interesting. France – Sanofi? – turned over 4,2 billion bucks in external markets with net exports of just 0.4 billion bucks. Denmark shipped in a billion bucks and shipped out 2.6 billion. Similarly China turned over 1.6 billion bucks with net exports of 300 million. No idea of the destinations of these net exports.

Germany and Denmark were the top two exporting countries in 2021  France and the US were the biggest importers.

Of just those 5 top countries, exports totalled around 9.5 billion and imports 6.1 billion for a total turnover of around 15.6 billion. China is the fastest growing exporter and Denmark the fastest growing importer.

All about global supply chains and their domicile for both sourcing and tax purposes I suppose.

Thus endeth the data gathering and doodling!

All comments welcome!

Onwards

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