HC Deb 19 December 1991 vol 201 c256W
Mr. Speed

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the comparative cost over two years of an insulin injection pen with appropriate needle and a disposable insulin syringe based upon two injections per day.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

It is not possible to make a detailed cost comparison in the way requested because of variations in patients' dosages and injecting habits and the types and pack sizes of insulin and their costs. On the basis of information submitted by the manufacturers to the Department, assuming no reuse of needles and a pen system that lasts for less than two years, the cost of an injection pen system would exceed the current cost of disposable syringes.