Symlin, Part Two: But What About Me? | ASweetLife.org

Where I Left Off
In the last installment of my symlin saga, I had found that Symlin, Amlyn Pharmaceutical’s synthetic amylin, helped slow gastric emptying and reduce post-prandial spikes. I also found that Symlin had to be injected subcutaneously, either with the Symlin Pen or from a second pump, and that allegedly, Symlin and insulin cannot be mixed. This segregationist statute comes from the fact that Symlin is manufactured at a pH of 4.0, and insulin runs at a pH of about 7.0 – 7.5. And, insulin being as finicky as it is, lowering the pH of of insulin too close to the isoelectric point drastically increases the risk that the insulin will precipitate and be insoluble, clogging up pumps and failing to absorb into the bloodstream.

Where I’m Going
But: Novolog, Novo Nordisk’s rapid-acting insulin, maintains a high degree of solubility even with a pH in the mid sixes. So the question that’s up next is, can the pH of Symlin be raised sufficiently such that the two solutions can remain soluble and effective while mixed in a single pump chamber?