> Insulin from cattle and pigs was used for many years to treat diabetes and saved millions of lives, but it wasn’t perfect, as it caused allergic reactions in many patients. The first genetically engineered, synthetic “human” insulin was produced in 1978 using E. coli bacteria to produce the insulin. Eli Lilly went on in 1982 to sell the first commercially available biosynthetic human insulin under the brand name Humulin. [0]
This process—programming bacteria to generate complex human biomolecules for our consumption(!!)—was a crowning human achievement. It did not occur 100 years ago. Insulin is not simple [1], and making it in the current pharmaceutical form that we expect, at the scale we need, is not some simple, 100 year old thing. We can't take these things for granted.
No comment on how much makers should charge for insulin.
[0] http://diabetesstopshere.org/2012/08/21/the-history-of-a-won...