Alternative sources for better and safer products

Unlimited supply of no-risk insulin

Insulin-dependent diabetics need regular injections of insulin. Since 1920, insulin is extracted from the pancreas of pigs or cows, but to treat one patient for one year the glands of 50 pigs are needed. With the number of patients receiving treatment increasing, an insulin shortage threatened. To overcome this, the company Novo Nordisk decided to produce human insulin in recombinant baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This yeast is widely used in industry, simple to grow on a large scale and completely harmless. The recombinant product is made by the yeast as an insulin precursor molecule. During secretion the correct disulphide bridges are formed and an enzymatic process converts the precursor into human insulin identical to the natural product. This recombinant insulin is on the market since 1988 and ensures that diabetics are no longer dependent on supplies of pancreatic glands for insulin, nor are they at risk of contamination with infectious agents from animal origin.