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Type 2 Diabetics Benefit From Insulin Glargine Injections in Clinical Practice: Presented at IDF

By Ed Susman

PARIS, FRANCE -- Aug. 27, 2003 -- Once-daily insulin glargine injections can help provide the control over Type 2 diabetes that is often lacking in patients in an everyday practice setting, even with the use of oral agents.

"Insulin glargine provides a 24-hour duration of action, making it particularly useful in patients who are not keen about performing injections," said Andreas Klinge, MD, Diabetologische Schwerpunktpraxis, Hamburg-West, Germany, in a poster presentation here at the 18th International Diabetes Foundation Congress.

Dr. Klinge and colleagues recruited 7,182 patients with Type 2 diabetes who were treated with insulin glargine, a basal insulin analogue, and were observed for three months.

Researchers measured levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose, pre-lunch and pre-dinner blood glucose, body mass index and daily dose of insulin glargine.

After 12 weeks, HbA1c levels, which were 9% at basline, had dropped to 7.3%; fasting blood glucose decreased from 11 mmol/L to 7.3 mmol/L; pre-lunch blood glucose dipped from 11.1 mmol/L to 7.3 mmol/L; pre-dinner blood glucose dropped from 11.0 to 7.4 mmol/L. The average level of insulin glargine rose from 14.3 IU at baseline to 19.7 IU at the end of the three months.

"These findings support data obtained from clinical studies," Dr. Klinge noted, "which demonstrate that insulin glargine improves metabolic control safely without causing weight gain in people with Type 2 diabetes who are not adequately controlled on oral anti-diabetic drugs alone." Dr. Klinge said it was important that the improvement in metabolic control with the daily insulin injections did not result in changes in patients' overall body mass index or weight.

Only 1.8% of the patients in the study discontinued due to adverse reactions to insulin glargine, Dr. Klinge reported. Most appreciated the once-daily dosing. "Patients like the idea of just one injection a day, rather than multiple injections at meal times," said Dr. Klinge.

This study was supported by Aventis Pharma Deutschland Gmbh, Bad Soden am Taunus, Germany.


[Study title: Treatment of patients with Type 2 diabetes with insulin glargine in everyday practice. Abstract 2208]

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