Weekly insulin tested
Once-a-week insulin injections could soon become a reality for diabetes patients.
New studies have shown that a once-weekly injection of insulin efsitora alfa (efsitora) is as effective as daily insulin for managing blood sugar levels in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
In recent trials, researchers compared weekly efsitora with the widely used daily insulin degludec over a 52-week period.
They found that the new insulin demonstrated similar efficacy to the daily injections in controlling blood sugar levels.
Dr Carol Wysham, lead author of one of the studies, says that the new insulin “has the potential to simplify dose administration and diminish barriers to starting insulin therapy”.
This would reduce the burden on patients, who currently face daily injections, making treatment adherence easier.
Dr Wysham’s team explored this with 928 patients with type 2 diabetes, some of whom were using newer treatments like GLP-1 receptor agonists alongside oral diabetes medications.
The results showed a decrease in the patients' glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels - a key indicator of blood sugar control.
With efsitora, patients' HbA1c dropped from 8.21 per cent to 6.97 per cent, while the daily degludec group saw a similar decrease from 8.24 per cent to 7.05 per cent.
The once-weekly insulin was also found to be non-inferior in terms of safety, with no major differences in hypoglycaemia rates between the two groups.
Efsitora’s success in these trials represents a potential shift in diabetes treatment.
As insulin is essential for many patients who cannot maintain glycaemic control with oral medications, simplifying its administration could help overcome reluctance to start therapy.
“A once-weekly insulin has the potential to simplify dose administration,” the researchers concluded, with further data suggesting that both patients and healthcare providers would prefer the less frequent injection regimen.
This could lead to better long-term outcomes for people managing diabetes, particularly those struggling with daily injection routines.
The results of these trials have been presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting.