FDA approves first human insulin for veterinary use

St. Joseph, Mo.

-- The Food and Drug Administration recently approved Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica's PROZINC™ (protamine zinc recombinant human insulin) for veterinary use.

The product is an aqueous protamine zinc (PZI) suspension of recombinant human insulin that is used to reduce hyperglycemia in cats with diabetes mellitus.

According to Kurt Peterson, DVM, technical veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, PROZINC is the first, and currently the only, recombinant human PZI insulin available for the management of feline diabetes mellitus.

"Extensive research has demonstrated that PROZINC is safe and effective for controlling hyperglycemia in newly diagnosed cats and diabetic cats that have not responded well to previous treatment therapies," Peterson says in a prepared statement.

Practitioners and cat owners who have used PZI-VET in the past should find this product to be comparable in potency, onset and duration of glycemic control, the company says.