In 2 years, the world will celebrate the centenary of the discovery of insulin for the treatment of diabetes. An estimated 20–40 million people worldwide require this essential medicine for survival. This includes all patients with type 1 diabetes who depend on exogenous insulin for normal metabolism and people with type 2 diabetes who have become desensitised to their own endogenous insulin. Yet nearly a century after the discovery of this lifesaving drug, there are many premature and preventable deaths due to the lack of accessible, affordable insulin products.