Insulin degludec shows promise in diabetes

By Sally Robertson, B.Sc.Oct 4 2012

Self-administration of daily insulin degludec (IDeg) injections is no less effective than self-injecting insulin glargine (IGlar) in patients with diabetes who are new to insulin therapy, say researchers.

In a presentation at the European 48^th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, lead author of the study Bernard Zinman, from the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, said that the IDeg regimen also has advantages over IGlar in terms of the adverse effects experienced by patients.

Zinman and colleagues randomly allocated 1030 individuals with a diabetes duration of 9.2 years and a mean baseline glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level of 8.2% to receive once-daily IDeg or IGlar, at a starting dose of 10 U subsequently titrated to achieve plasma glucose (PG) targets of 3.9-4.9 mmol/L over a 52-week period.

The researchers found that there was no significant difference in mean HbA1c reduction from baseline between the IDeg and IGlar groups by the end of the treatment period, at 1.06% versus 1.19%, respectively.

However, reductions from baseline in mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels were significantly greater with IDeg, compared with IGlar, at 3.76 mmol/L versus 3.30 mmol/L.

Zinman also reported that confirmed hypoglycemia, defined as a PG level of less than 3.1 mmol/L or severe events requiring assistance, occurred at similar rates between the two groups.

However, severe hypoglycemia was a significant 86% relatively less frequent with IDeg than with IGar, at 0.003 versus 0.023 episodes per patient, respectively. And the rate of nocturnal confirmed hypoglycemia was also significantly lower with IDeg, at 0.29 versus 0.39 episodes per patient, a 36% relative difference.

Overall, other adverse events rates were low and similar between the groups.

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