Leftover Victoza & Pen Disposal.

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Stephen L

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Type 2
I'm currently on a 1.2mg dose of Victoza. The pen has ended up with half a dose or 0.6mg left in it.

What should you do with the leftover Victoza and the pen?

I am aware that the formula for the number of answers to any question asked on the internet is N => X, where X is the number of respondents.

In a probably vain attempt to prevent someone saying that it should go in a sharps bin, I have removed the needle and put this in my sharps bin and, on its own, the pen is very blunt.
 
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Stephen L said:
I'm currently on a 1.2mg dose of Victoza. The 3mg pen ends up with half a dose or 0.6mg left in it.

What should you do with the leftover Victoza and the pen?

I am aware that the formula for the number of answers to any question asked on the internet is N => X, where X is the number of respondents.

In a probably vain attempt to prevent someone saying that it should go in a sharps bin, I have removed the needle and put this in my sharps bin and, on its own, the pen is very blunt.
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That’s the trouble with disposable things, isn’t it. I don’t know, I’m afraid, I think I would ask the person who prescribed it for me. Although not sharp, the sharps bin may be the appropriate place to dispose as it gets incinerated?
Can you get non disposable pens for Victoza like you can for insulin?
 
I do not believe that any of the 'new' Type 2 injectables are available any way at all other than in disposable pens. Trouble is none of these pends whatever they happen to contain, are re-cyclable.

I don't even know if what's in Victoza etc is environmentally friendly, hence if you just lob it in the 'landfill' household waste bin, when it gets broken whether the remainder of the drug taints ground water, is poisonous to small animals, bugs etc, or what.
 
Chuck it in the normal waste.
 
I may "bite the bullet" and inject the 0.6mg from the old pen and 0.6mg from a new pen tomorrow. I do need to get used to injecting. It actually doesn't hurt, but I don't find it a pleasant experience. You shouldn't dispose of any unused medication down the drain. The pen itself is predominantly made from hard plastic (polystyrene?) with probably some small metal parts (a spring?) so it isn't currently recyclable. Therefore, as long as it's empty, then it should go into the general waste. I would argue that that it's like a used sticky plaster with a little bit of antiseptic cream still on it. And, this stuff is expensive: evidently, in the USA, a pen costs $145!
 
Ignore US prices Stephen - one vial of insulin (10ml) costs getting on for $300 whereas exactly the same costs the NHS around £30. A box of disposable insulin cartridges - 5 x 30ml - for re-usable pens is about the same price here, as is a box of eg 3ml insulin disposable Flexpens.

I was thinking more of unused Victoza in landfill, when the pens get crushed since they will become brittle eventually anyway and disintegrate if they don't get squashed, leaching through to the water table and hence rivers etc. rather than squirting it down any drain.

The ruddy plastic in em is heinous anyway - our dear departed member Copepod was always up in arms about disposable insulin pens in the first place - and I rather obviously agree with her wholeheartedly. Invention of the devil!
 
trophywench said:
Ignore US prices Stephen - one vial of insulin (10ml) costs getting on for $300 whereas exactly the same costs the NHS around £30. A box of disposable insulin cartridges - 5 x 30ml - for re-usable pens is about the same price here, as is a box of eg 3ml insulin disposable Flexpens.

I was thinking more of unused Victoza in landfill, when the pens get crushed since they will become brittle eventually anyway and disintegrate if they don't get squashed, leaching through to the water table and hence rivers etc. rather than squirting it down any drain.

The ruddy plastic in em is heinous anyway - our dear departed member Copepod was always up in arms about disposable insulin pens in the first place - and I rather obviously agree with her wholeheartedly. Invention of the devil!
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I agree. Perhaps if more of us stakeholders let the manufacturers know of our objections, they might start producing cartridges for reusable pens. It might take government intervention in the form of taxes. Now seems like a good time to raise the issue, given the furore about single use plastics generally.
 
I am amazed to hear that there are no reusable pen options 😱

I never used single-use pens in all my 20 years on MDI, always reusable pens or syringes. I never liked the idea of something disposable that I needed to deliver precise doses tbh. Though I am sure they are reliable enough.
 
BNFlists the cost as £78.48 for 2 pens or £117.72 for 3 pens. There isnt a cartridge version.
Eli Lilly says to dispose of the pen without needle in householdwaste and states that the pen is not recycable.
 
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