WHO calls for insulin price cuts

Even 100 years after its discovery, millions of diabetics around the world still do not have access to this life-saving drug.

The World Health Organization wrote on the occasion of World Diabetes Day next Sunday that there are many reasons for this, including the severe weakness of health systems in many countries, the high prices of insulin, and the low competition for the production of the drug because three manufacturers dominate the market.

"The scientists who discovered insulin 100 years ago refused to make a profit, and sold the patent for only one dollar," said the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, today, Friday, adding that this gesture of solidarity is no longer valid today.

According to estimates by the World Health Organization, about nine million people live with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas are destroyed.

In total, more than 400 million people in the world suffer from type 2 diabetes, and about 60 million of them need insulin.

The German Diabetes Foundation says that 80% of patients of this type have diabetes, and without insulin, they are at risk of kidney failure, blindness or amputation.

The World Health Organization says that 80% of diabetics live in poor or poorer countries, and calls for more investment in the production of insulin in order to create stronger competition until its prices fall.

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