Types of Insulin:

1. By its source - i.e. animal and recombinant (human)
2. By its action - i.e. short acting, intermediate and long acting

Insulin preparations classification depending on the duration of their action.

1. Ultra fast/ultra short-acting e.g lispro, aspart, glulisine
2. Short-acting e.g regular, Insugen R
3. Intermediate-acting e.g NPH, Insugen N
4. Long-acting e.g glargine, determir

Biocon has four preparations of Human Insulin

1. Regular insulin (Insugen R)

• Regular insulin is sometimes called short-acting insulin or soluble insulin.
• Regular insulin has a clear appearance
• It can be given subcutaneously and intravenously
• Regular insulin has an effect which comes on rapidly but lasts for only a short time.

Action characteristics:

• Onset of action: ½ to 1 hour after injection.
• Peak activity: 2 to 3 hours after injection.
• Duration of action: 4 to 6 hours after injection.

When this kind of insulin is injected at 7 a.m., the effect will look like this.

• Regular insulin is given whenever a rapid insulin effect is required.
• Regular insulin is given to control increase in blood glucose after meals. (30 min prior to meals)
• Regular insulin is used in emergencies, e.g., diabetic ketoacidosis.
• Regular insulin can also be combined with long-acting insulin.
• Regular insulin can be mixed in the syringe with any other kind of insulin.

2. NPH insulin, Insugen N

• NPH insulin is sometimes called basal insulin or delayed action insulin.
• It has a cloudy appearance an effect which comes on more slowly than that of regular insulin but lasts longer.
• NPH should be given subcutaneously only.
• Although regular insulin has to be injected at least three times day, long-acting insulin needs to be injected only twice or even once a day.

NPH insulin is sometimes called basal insulin or delayed action insulin.It has a cloudy appearance an effect which comes on more slowly than that of soluble insulin but lasts longer. NPH should be given subcutaneously only.Although regular insulin has to be injected at least three times a day, long-acting insulin needs to be injected only twice or even once a day.

This is roughly what the activity curve of NPH insulin looks like.

Action characteristics:

• Onset of action: ½ to 1½ hours.
• Peak activity: 4 to 7 hours.
• Duration of action: 14 to 18 hours after injection.

The greatest advantage of NPH insulin is that they can be mixed in the syringe with regular insulin.

3. Premixed insulin formulations:
Insugen 30/70 and Insugen 50/50

They are ready-made mixtures of regular and NPH insulin.These are patient friendly and preferred insulin preparations because of their convienience (no need to take trouble in mixing).

Insugen 30/70 :
Contains 30% regular insulin and 70% NPH insulin.

Action characteristics:

• Onset of action: 0.5 to 1 hour
• Peak activity: 1.5-16 hours.
• Duration of action: 14-18 hours after injection.

Insugen50/50 :
Contains 50% regular insulin and 50% NPH insulin

Action characteristics:

• Onset of action: 0.5 to 1 hour.
• Peak activity: 2 to 5.5 hours.
• Duration of action: 14 to 18 hours after injection.