(HealthDay News) — Once-weekly efsitora is noninferior to once-daily degludec for reducing glycated hemoglobin levels in adults with type 2 diabetes who have not received insulin, according to a study published online Sept. 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, held from from Sept. 9 to 13 in Madrid.

Carol Wysham, MD, from the MultiCare Rockwood Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology in Spokane, WA, and colleagues conducted a 52-week, treat-to-target trial involving adults with type 2 diabetes who had not previously received insulin. Participants were randomly assigned to receive efsitora (466 patients) or degludec (462 patients).

The researchers found that from baseline to week 52, there was a decrease in the mean glycated hemoglobin level from 8.21 to 6.97% with efsitora and from 8.24 to 7.05% with degludec (estimated treatment difference, 0.09 percentage points), with the results demonstrating noninferiority. In participants using and not using glucagon like peptide-1 receptor agonists, efsitora was noninferior to degludec with respect to change in the glycated hemoglobin level. The percentage of time that the glucose level was within target range was 64.3 and 61.2% with efsitora and degludec, respectively (estimated treatment difference, 3.1 percentage points). The rate of combined clinically significant or severe hypoglycemia was 0.58 and 0.45 events per participant-year of exposure with efsitora and degludec, respectively (estimated rate ratio, 1.30).

“Noninferiority to once-daily degludec with respect to the change in the glycated hemoglobin level from baseline to week 52 was shown,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry, including Eli Lilly, which funded the study.

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