The Ogluo hypo rescue pen is being withdrawn: check your emergency kit
Ogluo pre-filled glucagon rescue pens are being discontinued through 2025, with the GlucaGen HypoKit as the alternative rescue for a severe hypo.
If your emergency kit contains an Ogluo pen, check it now, calmly, rather than in the middle of a crisis. Ogluo, a ready-to-use glucagon pen, is being discontinued in the UK. Glucagon is the emergency injection that someone else gives you if a hypo becomes so severe that you cannot safely swallow sugar yourself. The replacement is the GlucaGen HypoKit, which does the same job but needs a quick mixing step first. The medicine is not disappearing; the device is changing, and the people who might use it on you need to learn the new steps.
- Glucagon is for a severe hypo only, when someone is confused, cannot swallow safely, is fitting, or is unconscious, not for an ordinary low you can treat with sugar.
- Ogluo came in two strengths and both are going: the 500mcg version ran out in July 2025, and the 1mg version is due to run out by early December 2025.
- The replacement, the GlucaGen HypoKit, comes as a powder and a liquid you combine before injecting, so it is not quite as grab-and-go as Ogluo.
- Ask your GP or pharmacist to arrange a GlucaGen replacement, and check the expiry date whenever you swap kit.
- A severe hypo is a 999 emergency: the rescue injection and the ambulance are not an either/or choice.
Why your rescue kit may need swapping
Ogluo is a pre-filled glucagon pen, ready to inject, and it is being withdrawn in the UK. Supplies of the 500mcg version were used up in July 2025, and the 1mg version is expected to run out by the week beginning 1 December 2025. In its place, teams are moving people to the GlucaGen HypoKit, the standard glucagon rescue.
This is a device and supply change, not a change to how a severe hypo is treated. Glucagon still does the same thing: it tells the liver to release stored sugar quickly, enough to bring someone round to take fast-acting carbs by mouth. What is changing is the kit in your bag, and it is worth sorting before you need it.
The one practical thing to sort now
The real difference is that GlucaGen needs a small preparation step. Ogluo was ready to use straight away, whereas the HypoKit comes as a powder and a liquid you mix together just before injecting. It is not difficult, but it is a step, and a severe hypo is the worst moment to read instructions for the first time.
So the key action is a calm run-through while nothing is wrong. Get the replacement from your GP or pharmacist, read the instructions in the box, and then show the people most likely to use it on you, family, a partner, housemates, close colleagues, where it is kept and how it works. In a severe hypo you almost certainly cannot do it yourself, which is why the people around you knowing the steps matters most. Your diabetes team or pharmacist can talk you and them through it.
Worth doing this week
Questions that make an appointment useful
When it's urgent
A severe hypo is an emergency. If someone with Type 1 is confused, unable to swallow safely, fitting (having a seizure), or unconscious, call 999 straight away. Never put food or drink into the mouth of someone who cannot swallow safely. If a glucagon rescue kit is to hand and someone knows how to use it, it can be given while you wait for the ambulance, but it does not replace the 999 call. Once the person is awake and able to swallow, they will need longer-acting carbs, and your diabetes team should hear what happened.