New insulin delivered once a week has demonstrated efficacy
At the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2024 in Madrid, the results of clinical trials of the new insulin efsitor, which is administered once a week, were presented. The tests showed that the new drug is as effective as degludec, which is administered daily.
The trials were conducted in the format of evaluating the new insulin compared to the existing insulin. The established limit of non-inferior efficacy was 0.4 percentage units of HbA1c, confirming the comparability of efsitora and degludec in lowering blood sugar levels.
The 52-week QWINT-2 study enrolled 928 patients with type 2 diabetes who were not previously taking insulin. Participants were randomly assigned into groups to receive either efsitora or degludec. Results showed that HbA1c levels decreased from 6.97% to 6.97% when receiving efsitora and from 8.24% to 7.05% when receiving degludec. The time participants spent in the target blood sugar range was 64.3% for efsitora and 61.2% for degludec.
The frequency of hypoglycemia was significantly lower: no cases of severe hypoglycemia were recorded when taking efsitora, while 6 cases were registered when using degludec.
According to the authors of the development, further study of the drug dosage in patients with type 1 diabetes is required.