Today I'm going to talk about insulin. Now, you may have noticed that we have many more insulin products on the market than we have ever had before, and there are going to be even more products coming down the pike. I want to try to make sense of all of these different products.
New Concentrations, New Analog Products, and Biosimilars
Most of us are used to the traditional U-100 insulin; that's what insulin syringes are made for. Some of you may have heard of U-500 insulin, which is basically a 5-fold more concentrated regular insulin, and we reserve it for people who are very insulin resistant. It's harder to use because it's more complicated in the sense that you have to figure out the dosing with insulin syringes. Nevertheless, we have discovered that increasing the concentration of insulin can improve some of the qualities that we know are associated with insulin.
One of the newer insulin products is called Toujeo®, and it's actually insulin glargine, which we're used to, but instead of being U-100, it's U-300. As a visual, it comes in this box, which is this light green color with some black polka dots, and the pen looks quite different compared with that gray glargine or Lantus® insulin that you're used to.
COMMENTARY
New Insulins: Benefits and Challenges
Anne L. Peters, MD
DisclosuresDecember 11, 2015
Today I'm going to talk about insulin. Now, you may have noticed that we have many more insulin products on the market than we have ever had before, and there are going to be even more products coming down the pike. I want to try to make sense of all of these different products.
New Concentrations, New Analog Products, and Biosimilars
Most of us are used to the traditional U-100 insulin; that's what insulin syringes are made for. Some of you may have heard of U-500 insulin, which is basically a 5-fold more concentrated regular insulin, and we reserve it for people who are very insulin resistant. It's harder to use because it's more complicated in the sense that you have to figure out the dosing with insulin syringes. Nevertheless, we have discovered that increasing the concentration of insulin can improve some of the qualities that we know are associated with insulin.
One of the newer insulin products is called Toujeo®, and it's actually insulin glargine, which we're used to, but instead of being U-100, it's U-300. As a visual, it comes in this box, which is this light green color with some black polka dots, and the pen looks quite different compared with that gray glargine or Lantus® insulin that you're used to.
Medscape Diabetes © 2015 WebMD, LLC
Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: New Insulins: Benefits and Challenges - Medscape - Dec 11, 2015.
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Authors and Disclosures
Authors and Disclosures
Author
Anne L. Peters, MD
Professor of Clinical Medicine; Director, Clinical Diabetes Programs, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Disclosure: Anne L. Peters, MD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
Served as director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant, or trustee for: (current consultant): Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; Novo Nordisk
Served as a speaker or member of a speaker's bureau for (current speakers bureau member): Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; Novo Nordisk; Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.
Served as a consultant or ad hoc speaker/consultant for: AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP; Abbott Laboratories; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Dexcom; Medtronic MiniMed, Inc.; Merck & Co., Inc.; Roche; sanofi-aventis