Diabetics Skimp On Lifesaving Care In Recession

Sales have dipped for pricey brand-name diabetes pills, blood glucose monitors and even test strips, based on industry sales figures and interviews with the top two makers of testing supplies. The strips generally cost $1 or more each; patients using insulin are supposed to test at least two to four times a day to be sure their blood sugar is in a safe range.

Most diabetics typically can control the disease for a few years with diet, exercise and pills available as cheap generics. But eventually, those pills stop working well, and patients switch to more advanced — and more expensive — medicines.

Sales of the most widely used pill, $4-a-month metformin, are up 7 percent since June, according to the AP analysis of figures from health data firm IMS Health Inc. Brand-name versions of the same drug, costing 10 times as much, are down 9 percent, on average, since then.

By February, sales for nearly every other category of diabetes pills and insulins were down from a year earlier, most by double digits, IMS figures show. The only exceptions were a heavily promoted new type of diabetes pill, Januvia, and advanced insulins that tightly control blood sugar levels.