Open Insulin Foundation

We’re a team of biohackers with a variety of backgrounds, and skills, and relationships to insulin and diabetes from many cities and countries around the world, including Oakland, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Paraiba, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal; Yaounde, Cameroon; and Puerto Rico. We’re working to develop the first practical, small-scale, community-centered model for insulin production to make insulin accessible to all. We envision a world in which communities in need have local sources of safe, affordable, high-quality insulin, and where people living with diabetes and their communities can own and govern the organizations that produce the medicine they depend on to survive.

Join Us

A person holding a pipette and test tube.

387
Million people

There are currently 387 million people worldwide living with diabetes.

2X
Insulin price increase from 2012-2016

The few suppliers of insulin have been raising prices in near-synchrony for decades.

7.6millionHospitalizations in 2016

These price increases lead to long-term health and consequences and deaths.

What We Do

We are creating an open-source (freely available) model for insulin production that centers on sustainable, small-scale manufacturing and open-source alternatives to production. We are developing protocols to produce short-acting (lispro) and long-acting (glargine) insulin, working on developing open-hardware equivalents to traditional production equipment, are researching sustainable regulation pathways to bring our insulin to the public, and are building capacities for local, small-scale manufacturing.

A person looking at the camera and smiling. They are in a lab.

How Do I Participate?

Our work would not be possible without the support of volunteers, interns, and community advisors. We welcome people of all backgrounds from all over the world to bring their enthusiasm, time, connections, and experiences, both in life and in work. Our volunteers promote us on social media, build equipment, run experiments, write reports and blog posts, facilitate meetings, connect with other organizations and groups, meet with experts in the field, run virtual events, and contribute in designing tools, resources, and methods of all sorts.

To get involved, join us for an info session with the Open Insulin Foundation team, offered the last Sunday of each month. Click the link below to sign up!

Volunteer

Potential Partners

We welcome collaboration with other groups that share our mission―community labs, academic institutions, patient advocacy groups, and NGOs.

A group of people gathered around a lab workbench.

Donate

Your donation will help us get closer to our goal. With a healthy financial situation, we can pay for lab supplies, acquire lab equipment, recruit scientists, and pay for consultation fees for regulation and manufacturing experts.

Donate Now

What People Have To Say About OIF

Anthony D. - Open Insulin Founder

"The usual sources on insulin have failed many people with diabetes and left them to die. [...] We are taking over the stewardship of the medicine our lives depend on."

Alex H. - Open Insulin Member

"Paying ANY sum for insulin feels like an insult... We're already dealing with so much."