Today's Edition
(AGENCIES)
An experimental once-weekly insulin- efsitora - is comparable to daily insulin use in tests on nearly a thousand adults with type 2 diabetes in three late-stage trials, researchers reported at a recent American Diabetes Association meeting.
The trials, which were designed to study patients at different stages of insulin use, each found efsitora to be just as effective as daily insulins for bringing HbA1c levels — a common measure of blood sugar over time — under control.
“Once-weekly efsitora may offer a significant advancement for people with type 2 diabetes who need insulin by eliminating over 300 injections per year,” Eli Lilly’s senior vice president of product development, Jeff Emmick, said in a statement.
One trial, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, involved patients with type 2 diabetes who were using insulin for the first time. A second trial in patients who had been using daily basal insulin degludec, and a third trial in those who had been taking basal insulin glargine plus extra mealtime insulin doses, were both reported in The Lancet.
Efsitora “has the potential to facilitate and simplify insulin therapy, reducing the hesitation often associated with starting insulin to treat type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Julio Rosenstock of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who led one of the studies, said in a statement.
People newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes usually start treatment with oral medications, but roughly one-third of them will need to use insulin within 8 years of their diagnosis, according to an editorial in The Lancet.
