Discontinuation of insulin detemir

Below are the database queries which are used to create this measure. These are run against a copy of the BSA prescribing data which we store in Google BigQuery. We're working on making our BigQuery tables publicly available at which point it will be possible to run and modify these queries yourself. But even where code and database queries are not directly useable by others we believe it is always preferable to make them public.

Description Insulin detemir items per 1000 patients
Why it matters Novo Nordisk are discontinuing all formulations of Levemir®, the only insulin detemir product available in the UK, with supply due to exhaust by December 2026.

The Primary Care Diabetes & Obesity Society (PCDOS) and Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD) have written guidance to support clinicians in selecting and safely initiating alternative basal insulins. The guidance recommends that local teams diversify prescribing across the available options to reduce supply risks. Given the significant regional variation in prescribing, it also advises using data to support planning.

This OpenPrescribing measure, alongside it’s OpenPrescribing Hospitals counterpart provides data on variation across primary and secondary care to support this planning.
Tags Diabetes
Implies cost savings No
Authored by richard.croker
Checked by christopher.wood
Last reviewed 2025-10-07
Next review due 2026-12-31
History View change history on GitHub →

Numerator SQL

SELECT
     CAST(month AS DATE) AS month,
     practice AS practice_id,
     SUM(items) AS numerator
 FROM hscic.normalised_prescribing
 WHERE bnf_code IN ("0601012X0AAAAAA", "0601012X0AAABAB", "0601012X0BBAAAA", "0601012X0BBABAB", "0601012X0BBACAB")
 GROUP BY month, practice_id

Denominator SQL

SELECT
     CAST(month AS DATE) AS month,
     practice AS practice_id,
     SUM(total_list_size / 1000.0) AS denominator
 FROM hscic.practice_statistics
 GROUP BY month, practice_id
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