than the OTC insulin sold elsewhere, according to a national survey of pharmacy employees.
The survey was undertaken by Jennifer N. Goldstein, MD, of Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del., and her colleagues and published online Feb. 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
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As Walmart does not make its sales data public, Dr. Goldstein and her colleagues conducted a national telephone-based survey of Walmart and chain pharmacies in the 49 states where OTC insulin is available. They administered a five-item questionnaire that sought to determine the frequency of OTC insulin sales.
Of the 561 pharmacies that completed the questionnaire, 500 (89.1%) responded that they did sell OTC insulin; this included 284 of 292 Walmart pharmacies. Among those Walmart pharmacies, 247 (87%) said sales of OTC insulin occurred daily; 31 (10.9%) sold it weekly; and 3 (1.1%) sold it monthly.
The chains (CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid) reported far less frequent sales of OTC insulin; 100 out of 216 (46.3%) pharmacies said they made sales only “a few times a year,” and none reported daily sales.
A majority of respondents (54.9%) also answered yes when asked if they believed patients purchased OTC insulin because they could not afford the copayment on prescription insulin; 70.1% of those positive responses came from Walmart pharmacies.
The coauthors acknowledged that their survey represents the impressions of pharmacy employees as opposed to actual sales data. The numbers, however, do “support an estimate of daily sales of more than 18,000 vials of over-the-counter insulin at Walmart pharmacies.” As for next steps, they noted that “further studies should explore clinical and safety outcomes related to the use of over-the-counter insulin.”
One author was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. No conflicts of interest were reported.
SOURCE: Goldstein JN et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2019 Feb 18. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.7279