Table 1 Commercial recombinant human insulin/insulin analogue products and their production host systems

Human insulin

Identical to native human insulin

Fast/short/intermediate/long-acting depending on formulation

E. coli

Berlin-Chemie

Berlinsulin

Bioton

Gensulin

Eli Lilly & Co

Huminsulin, Humulin

Landsteiner Scientific

Bonglixan

Sanofi

Insulin Human Winthrop, Insuman

SciGen Ltd

Scilin

Tonghua Dongbao

Gansulin

H. polymorpha

Wockhardt

Wosulin

P. pastoris

Biocon

Insugen

S. cerevisiae

Novo Nordisk

Actraphane, Actrapid, Insulatard, Mixtard, Monotard, Novolin, Protaphane, Ultratard, Velosulin

Inhalable; Ultra rapid-acting

E. coli

MannKind

Afrezza

Insulin lispro

Engineered: inversion of native B28–B29 proline-lysine sequence

Fast-acting

E. coli

Eli Lilly & Co

Humalog, Liprolog

Sanofi

Admelog

Short-acting

E. coli

Gan & Lee

Prandilin

Insulin glargine

Engineered: A 21 asparagine replaced by glycine and B chain elongated by two arginines

Long-acting

E. coli

ACI Limited

Glarine

Eli Lilly & Co

Abasaglar, Basaglar

Gan & Lee

Basalin

Getz Pharma

Basagine

Incepta Pharmaceuticals

Vibrenta

Merck

Lusduna Nexvue

Sanofi

Lantus, Optisulin, Toujeo

Wockhardt

Glaritus

P. pastoris

Biocon

Basalog

Insulin aspart

Engineered: B28 proline replaced by aspartic acid

Fast-acting

S. cerevisiae

Novo Nordisk

NovoRapid, Novolog, Fiasp

Insulin glulisine

Engineered: B3 asparagine is replaced by a lysine and B29 lysine is replaced by glutamic acid

Fast-acting

E. coli

Sanofi

Apidra

Insulin detemir

Engineered: devoid of B30 threonine and a C14 fatty acid is covalently attached to B29 lysine

Long-acting

S. cerevisiae

Novo Nordisk

Levemir

Insulin degludec

Engineered: devoid of B30 threonine and hexadecanedioic acid via gamma-l-glutamyl spacer is conjugated to B29 lysine

Ultra-long acting

S. cerevisiae

Novo Nordisk

Tresiba