Safety, efficacy, and early clinical experience of insulin degludec in Japanese people with diabetes mellitus: A first-year report from Japan

Evaluation of Tresiba Combined with Six Ingredient Rehmannia Pill in the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE

Insulin replacement therapy is the main treatment method for type 1 diabetes, and adjuvant comprehensive treatment to reduce the complications of diabetes is still the focus of research. The purpose of this study is to explore the clinical efficacy of Tresiba combined with Ingredient Rehmannia Pill in the treatment of type 1 diabetes.

METHODS

A total of 216 patients with type 2 diabetes admitted to our hospital from January 2019 to July 2019 were enrolled in this study. Patients in the control and observation groups were treated with Tresiba and Tresiba combined with Ingredient Rehmannia Pill, respectively. The change of TCM symptom score, blood glucose level and fasting insulin level before and after treatment were evaluated, and the insulin resistance index was calculated to observe the adverse reactions of patients.

RESULTS

After treatment, the TCM syndrome scores of the two groups decreased significantly, and the TCM syndrome scores of the observation group were significantly lower than those of the control group. The fasting blood glucose, 2 h postprandial blood glucose and insulin resistance index of the observation group were lower than those of the control group. The levels of FBG, 2 hBG and HbA1C in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group. The total effective rate of the observation group was 91.7%, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (77.1%). The adverse reactions of patients in the observation group were slightly more than those in the control group.

CONCLUSION

Our study demonstrated that Ingredient Rehmannia Pill combined with Tresiba is effective in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, providing alternative therapies for the treatment of diabetes.

Clinical Use of IDegLira: Initiation to Titration After Basal Insulin

Delayed treatment intensification is common in U.S. patients with type 2 diabetes uncontrolled on basal insulin. Concerns about weight gain, hypoglycemia, increased regimen complexity, and additional copayments may lead to reluctance to initiate prandial insulin. IDegLira is a titratable, fixed-ratio coformulation that combines the advantages of insulin degludec and the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist liraglutide in a single once-daily injection and mitigates the side effects associated with each component. Clinical trials have demonstrated that IDegLira improves glycemic control without the increased risk of hypoglycemia and weight gain observed with basal insulin up-titration and the addition of prandial insulin, and this is achieved using twice-weekly titration. Clinical trials and real-world studies have also shown that IDegLira has the potential to reduce therapeutic and titration inertia. However, better outcomes could be achieved with IDegLira initiation in suitable patients with timely titration and by providers sharing their experience with this combination product. This review describes considerations for initiation, titration, and intensification of IDegLira in patients previously receiving basal insulin.

Real-world efficacy and safety of insulin degludec with mealtime rapid-acting insulin in type 1 diabetes in Indian pediatric population

Background

Insulin Degludec (IDeg) is a new ultra-long-acting basal insulin that has not been yet evaluated in Indian pediatric population. We aim to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IDeg as basal-bolus therapy in Indian pediatric patients affected by type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).

Methods

A total of 30 pediatric and adolescent patients (17 boys, 13 girls; 22 were pre-pubertal) with T1DM who were on IDeg once daily participated in the study. All the patients received IDeg for at least 26 weeks along with rapid-acting mealtime insulin and their pre- and post-baseline characteristics (anthropometric data (BMI), age, duration of diabetes), metabolic (HbA1C), insulin requirement (unit/kg body weight per day) and number of hypoglycemia episodes were recorded along with the daily self-monitoring of blood glucose.

Results

There was a significant decline in HbA1c, FPG and bolus insulin dose from baseline to 26 weeks in the overall population (HbA1c: 9.65 ± 1.998% to 8.60 ± 1.631%, P = 0.0014; FPG: 156.93 ± 42.373 mg/dL to 109.37 ± 28.531 mg/dL, P = 0.000004; bolus insulin dose: 0.49 ± 0.208 U/kg/day to 0.35 ± 0.155 U/kg/day, P = 0.00032). The basal insulin dose was significantly higher at 26 weeks compared to baseline dose (0.42 ± 0.134 U/kg/day to 0.46 ± 0.139 U/kg/day, P = 0.04219). There was no significant change in BMI at 26 weeks.None of the patients experienced any DKA episode for 26 weeks. 16.7% patients had experienced at least one symptomatic hypoglycemia episode. On CGMS among the patients who were shifted from Glargine to degludec hypoglycemia were reduced significantly (overall hypoglycemia: 1.92 ± 1.26 to 0.35 ± 0.49 episodes over 3 days, P = 0.0026 while nocturnal hypoglycemia: 0.92 ± 0.47 to 0.21 ± 0.42 episodes, P = 0.0021). None of the patients had severe hypoglycemia episode.

Conclusion

In our study IDeg is found to be safe and effective long-acting basal insulin that can be used in Indian pediatric population with T1DM. However further long term prospective studies are required to evaluate the long term effects.

Quality-of-life and treatment satisfaction in actual clinical practice of patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and hypoglycemia treated with insulin degludec

OBJECTIVE

The frequency of hypoglycemia in patients with T1DM is high and results in a poorer quality-of-life and low treatment satisfaction. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the effect of changing the basal insulin (glargine or detemir) to insulin degludec.

METHODS

An observational analytical study was conducted on a cohort of 110 patients with T1DM. The patients were administered three questionnaires to assess treatment satisfaction (DTSQ-s), fear of hypoglycemia (HFS-II) and quality-of-life (EQ-5D), before the change and at 6 months. A statistical analysis was performed for repeated measures.

RESULTS

The 110 patients with T1DM had a mean diabetes duration of 19.1 (11.6) years, 53.6% were men, the mean age was 43.4 (15.4) years, and the mean BMI was 25.2 (4.2) kg/m². After 6 months, there was a significant reduction in baseline fasting plasma glucose (from 159.1 [68.6] to 132.9 [56.6] mg/dL; p < .001) and HbA1c levels (from 7.82% [1.2] to 7.6% [1.2]; p = .002). A reduction in the number of severe hypoglycemic episodes (0.17 [0.5] vs 0.05 [0.2]; p = .03) was observed. At 6 months, an improvement in the DTSQ-s (from 24.3 [5.5] to 27.3 [5.4]; p < .001) was observed. There was a decrease in the mean number of perceived hypoglycemia (from 2.9 [1.4] to 2.3 [1.4]; p = .003) and hyperglycemia (from 3.5 [1.3] to 2.7 [1.4]; p < .001). There was also a decrease in the mean HFS-II score (from 24.1 [14.0] to 20.0 [13.0]; p < .001). There were no significant differences in the EQ-5D index (from 0.91 [0.14] to 0.89 [0.16]; p = .13). However, there was significant improvement in the EQ-5D as measured by VAS (from 70.5 [16.5] to 73.6 [14.4]; p = .04).

CONCLUSIONS

The change to insulin degludec in patients with T1DM improved their metabolic control, increased their satisfaction with the insulin therapy, and offered them improved quality-of-life.

A randomized crossover study of the efficacy and safety of switching from insulin glargine to insulin degludec in children with type 1 diabetes

This study implemented a randomized crossover design to evaluate the efficacy and safety of switching from insulin glargine (IGlar) to insulin degludec (IDeg) in 18 children (11 males, 7 females; age 11.0 ± 0.5 years) with type 1 diabetes. All subjects had previously used IGlar once daily at bedtime. We compared fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and HbA1c levels, frequencies of overall and nocturnal (2200 h - 0659 h) hypoglycemia, and basal insulin dose at the baseline with those measured during a 24-week period during which IGlar or IDeg was administered in combination with pre-meal rapid acting insulin analogues. IDeg was initially given at the same dose as IGlar but was subsequently titrated to achieve FPG levels of 90-140 mg/dL. There were no significant changes in FPG and HbA1c levels from the baseline during the 24-week study period with IGlar or IDeg. The daily basal insulin dose did not significantly differ with IGlar or IDeg. Although the frequencies of overall hypoglycemia were similar, nocturnal hypoglycemia significantly decreased at 12 and 24 weeks from the baseline with IDeg use (2 ± 0.4 vs. 0 ± 0.3, 0 ± 0.5 episodes/month, both P <0.05), whereas no significant change in the frequency of nocturnal hypoglycemia was observed with IGlar. No severe hypoglycemia occurred during the study period with either basal insulin analogues. These results suggest that IDeg, injected once at bedtime, may provide similar glycemic control as IGlar while better reducing the risk of nocturnal hypoglycemia in children with type 1 diabetes.