'It all boils down to cost': Albertans with diabetes frustrated by changes to insulin drug coverage

Albertans living with diabetes are criticizing an October announcement they'd have to switch from using biological insulin to biosimilar insulin.

Albertans living with diabetes are criticizing the province for forcing them to switch from using biological insulin to biosimilar insulin.

Biologics are complex drugs derived from living cells. Biosimilars mimic the original drugs but are based on expired patents and can be delivered at less cost.

Tyler Shandro, Alberta's health minister in 2019 when the province announced the change for patients of all kinds, said it was expected to save the province $380 million over four years.

Jasmine Maghera has been living with Type 1 diabetes for 13 years. She was diagnosed when she was 11 years old and has been taking Novorapid for almost the entire time she’s lived with the disease.

“It was a little bit concerning because it was kind of out of the blue and they were asking me to change the insulin I’ve been on for my whole life,” Maghera said of the directive that came at the start of the month that she switch medication. “The other insulins didn’t work for me, and now I’m being asked to change and it’s quite concerning because I finally have good control.”

Maghera said certain types of insulin would cause welts.