Authors: Saud Alsifri, Abdullah Alshahrani, Mohammed Aldawish, Khalid Alyahia, Bandar Alharbi, Horeya Moloy, Ali Alrumiah, Marc Evans, Samia Bokhari, Emad R Issak.
The best anti-diabetic medication does, in fact, have a low propensity to increase body weight and rate of hypoglycemia as well as glycemic control. The second-generation basal insulins analogues insulin degludec and insulin glargine 300 units/mL have significantly longer half-life and substantially smoother profiles than firstgeneration. The duration of action of glargine 300 is shorter than that of degludec, and significant residual glycemic variability is still present. Degludec has lower risks of hypoglycemia. Evaluating the therapeutic application in various geographical contexts is necessary, given the inter-country variations in the prescription patterns of glucose-lowering medications for persons with diabetes. A Saudi task force gathered to develop an explicit, evidence-based consensus for insulin degludec utilization in the local setting. This work contains the expert panel's recommendations as a contribution to complement the knowledge gap in this area from the national perspective. Results of the local UPDATES study investigating the treatment effect of degludec in adults with T2DM in Saudi Arabia showed that patients treated with degludec experienced clinically significant improvements in glycaemic control and a lower rate of hypoglycemia compared to baseline, with no new safety concerns. Results confirm that previously published data with degludec are generalizable to a broad population of patients with T2DM in routine clinical practice in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, local cost-utility analyses of degludec versus glargine 300 in T1DM and T2DM showed that it is cost-saving. Degludec was associated with less cost with better quality of life. Thus, the reimbursement of degludec will have a positive impact on the budget.
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