Maintaining adequate insulin treatment is no small challenge for millions of diabetes patients. Further data from the study indicate that the drug, administered once a week, will be able to replace daily injections in many patients. According to the results of the ONWARDS 2 phase 3a trial, more subjects with type 2 diabetes achieved target blood glucose values after using icodec insulin once a week than after using degludec insulin once a day.
Novo Nordisk presented new data from the ONWARDS 2 phase 3a study, according to which 37 prroc. adults with type 2 diabetes treated with once-weekly insulin icodec achieved hbA1c <7.0 per cent, without concomitant severe or clinically significant hypoglycaemia, compared to 27 per cent of those taking insulin degludec after 26 weeks. The results were presented at the 58th annual congress of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in 2022.
The main objective of the study, which was to demonstrate the equivalence of insulin icodec in reducing HbA1c at week 26 compared with insulin degludec, was achieved. With a mean baseline value of 8.17 per cent (icodec) and 8.10 per cent (degludec), administration of insulin icodec once a week achieved a greater decrease in estimated HbA1c (by 0.93 per cent) than administration of degludec (by 0.71 per cent).
After 26 weeks of the ONWARDS 2 study, participants reported higher satisfaction with icodec insulin administered once a week than with degludec insulin, as determined by the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQ).
- Administering insulin once a week could facilitate insulin therapy, she said Dr Athena Philis-Tsimikas of the Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute in California, principal investigator of the ONWARDS 2 project. For people with type 2 diabetes, this could mean simpler treatment and less burden by reducing the number of basal insulin injections from 365 to as few as 52 per year.
- We are pleased with the results of the ONWARDS programme so far," said Martin Holst Lange, Executive Vice President of Development at Novo Nordisk. Patient-reported data in the ONWARDS 2 trial, if confirmed in further studies, indicate that icodec could become a basal insulin for people with type 2 diabetes starting insulin therapy.
The average weekly insulin dose was 268 IU/week for insulin icodec versus 244 IU/week for insulin degludec. The estimated average weight loss between the start of the study and week 26 was 1.40 kg for insulin icodec compared with 0.30 kg for insulin degludec.
According to the study results, there was less than 1 case of hypoglycaemia per year per patient for both insulin icodec and insulin degludec (0.73 and 0.27 cases per year per patient taking the drug, respectively, with no statistically significant difference between the study groups). No severe cases of hypoglycaemia were observed in patients taking insulin icodec.
Information about icodec insulin
Insulin icodec is a once-weekly basal insulin analogue designed to cover basal insulin requirements for an entire week with a single subcutaneous injection. Phase 3 studies are currently underway for insulin icodec.
Information on the ONWARDS clinical programme
The ONWARDS clinical trial programme is for once-weekly insulin icodec and includes six global phase 3a clinical trials, including a trial with daily clinical practice components involving more than 4,000 adults with type 1 or type 22 diabetes. Key data for ONWARDS trials 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 have been announced, showing that the primary endpoints were achieved in all of these trials2-4.
Information on ONWARDS 2
The ONWARDS 2 clinical trial is a 26-week, goal-oriented phase 3a study of the efficacy and safety of once-weekly insulin icodec compared with once-daily insulin degludec in 526 people with type 2 diabetes who were previously taking once-daily insulin. The primary endpoint was to assess the change in HbA1c at week 26 with insulin icodec compared with insulin degludec.
Source: cowzdrowiu.pl