Le medicament du mois. Insuline basale degludec (Tresiba(R)).

Insulin degludec (Tresiba(R)) is characterized by an original mode of prolonged and continuous insulin release after its subcutaneous injection. Thereby, it has a very long glucose-lowering effect, around 42 hours, and a better reproducibility from both a pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic point of view. Its efficacy and safety have been assessed in the phase 3 clinical programme BEGIN as compared with insulin glargine U100, in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 (T2D). For a similar glucose control (reduction in glycated haemoglobin), less hypoglycaemic episodes were recorded, including severe hypoglycaemia, during the nocturnal period, with insulin degludec than with insulin glargine U100. This clinical benefit has been confirmed in the complementary SWITCH programme in T1D and T2D patients at higher risk of hypoglycaemia, in the double-blind cardiovascular outcome trial DEVOTE in T2D patients at high cardiovascular risk and in real-life conditions in the observational European EU-TREAT study in patients with T1D and T2D. Insulin degludec (Tresiba(R)) is indicated and reimbursed for the treatment of patients with T1D, combined with a prandial insulin, and T2D, alone or combined with oral antidiabetic agents, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist or a short-acting insulin.