GP leaders and experts are warning of an ‘increasingly urgent’ need to switch patients with diabetes from Levemir insulin before it is discontinued at the end of this year.
Local medical committees in London are among those writing to the integrated care board with patient safety concerns after pharmacies in the area are already reporting intermittent supply problems.
Manufacturer Novo Nordisk informed the Department of Health and Social Care in September 2024 that it would be withdrawing several older insulins including Levemir (insulin determir) in both its Penfill and Flexpen options.
Joint guidance has been issued from professional diabetes associations on alternatives to mitigate against knock-on shortages of other insulins.
It is thought thousands of patients could still be using Levemir and experts warned that switching was complex.
Dr Stephen Lawrence, a GP and associate clinical professor in primary care at Warwick University, said the discontinuation of Levemir was a ‘genuine patient safety concern’.
‘Insulin detemir cannot simply be replaced through an automatic prescription substitution.
‘There is no direct like-for-like alternative: the choice of basal insulin, dose, injection timing and delivery device must be tailored to the individual, with education and closer glucose monitoring during the early weeks after the change.’
He added it would be ‘unsafe’ to expect already pressured practices to absorb a large programme of reviews without safeguards.
"General practice may be well placed to deliver many switches, particularly where practices have established diabetes expertise.
"But it must be accompanied by protected capacity, training, a funded and clearly commissioned pathway, robust clinical governance and timely access to specialist diabetes advice for more complex patients."
Source: Pulse, 11 September 2026
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