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Injection Pens for Insulin, Glucagon, and GLP-1 Agonists

What They Do: Injection pens are used for injecting a drug in a patient-friendly way that is easier than using a syringe. For diabetes, they are most often used for either insulin or glucagon injections (type 1 and type 2 diabetes) or GLP-1 agonists (type 2 diabetes).

Last updated: August 14, 2020

Useful Links on Insulin Pens:

Companion Medical InPen – This Bluetooth-enabled smart insulin pen is now available for use by children of all ages.

Lilly’s Lyumjev – This rapid-acting mealtime insulin can help reduce blood glucose spikes and can be taken at the beginning of a meal or even 20 minutes into the meal. It is available as an injection pen.

NovoPen Echo Plus and NovoPen 6 – Compatible with Novolog (insulin aspart), Fiasp, Levemir, and Tresiba, these pens will have 5-year battery life and are reusable. Both pens will have an electronic display that shows the amount of active insulin, size of the last dose, and time since last injection. These pens are not yet available.

Lilly's Humalog KwikPen – The first FDA approved concentrated mealtime insulin, designed for insulin lispro. A Humalog Junior KwikPen is also available. This pen offers half-unit dosing.

Novo Nordisk Levemir FlexTouch Pen – A thumb-friendly pen for Levemir (insulin detemir).

Useful Links on GLP-1 Pens:

Lilly's Ready to Use Once-Weekly GLP-1 Agonist Trulicity Pen – The first available once-weekly ready to use GLP-1 agonist, with no reconstitution process necessary. Trulicity has also been shown to help in preventing strokes and heart attacks type 2 diabetes and with heart disease or those who at risk for heart disease.

Bydureon BCise pen – This pre-filled, single-use pen features an autoinjector with a hidden needle and viewing window for users to confirm they have received their GLP-1 medication.

AstraZeneca's Bydureon Pen – This once-weekly GLP-1 agonist pen improves convenience from previous models, but still requires reconstitution and wait time.

Useful Links on Glucagon Pens:

Xeris’ Gvoke Hypopen ­– It is the first ready-to-use, premixed, emergency glucagon autoinjector on the market. This pen can be used to treat low blood sugar emergencies.

Other Useful Links:

Timesulin Injection Timer Pen Cap – This add-on pen cap keeps track of the last time a user injected a drug, making sure users never miss a dose!

BD Medical Autoshield Duo Pen – This pen needle uses shields to hide the needle from sight at all times.

Medtronic Injection Port Helps Address Needlephobia – Hate needles? This injection port is designed to minimize needlephobia during the injection process. While not a pen itself, this Port is designed for use with injection pens.

Please note, this page is not a comprehensive list of all of the available resources or products available. All links are organized chronologically within their respective sections.