Weekly insulin will benefit more than 98,000 diabetics in Aragon
From next year in Spain weekly insulin injections for diabetic patients. This represents an advance in the treatment of this metabolic disease, as it will allow patients to move from the current injection, which is given daily, to weekly. The reason is that it slow-release basal insulin that is gradually distributed throughout the bodyso the patient can only be pricked once a week rather than twice a day.
The injection every seven days is one of the benefits that the new treatment, known as Lilly weekly insulin, will bring to Aragonese people with diabetes, who today November 2023 exceeded the number of 98,000 patients until it reached 98,698 cases. Figures released last year by the Department of Health of the Government of Aragon and in which the prevalence of the disease in the community was also announced: 7.36%.
DGA Health explains that New treatment ‘has received European approval since March’to which he adds that its use has also already been approved by the Spanish Medicines Agency. The drug is currently sold in the US and work is underway to bring it to Europe by 2025.
The Spanish process “is now in the Ministry of Health, which should arrange its financing,” the Ministry of Health indicates. According to the department, total cost invested in insulins in the community In the first six months of 2024, it amounted to 4.8 million. Added to this is the $25.7 million that was invested in other antidiabetic drugs, which in total represents “16% of Aragon’s prescription drug spending,” according to these sources.
Benefits for Type 2 Diabetes
Although all patients with diabetes will benefit from taking insulin weekly, will have a greater impact on those diagnosed with type 2, who is one of those who can stop injecting themselves daily. And there are differences between both types, 1 and 2. Pablo Lozano, a physician in the field of endocrinology and nutrition and working as a medical consultant at the Diabetes Association of Zaragoza, explains what diabetes consists of: “Diabetes is an increase in the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood and insulin. “It is a hormone produced by the pancreas and is responsible for metabolism to produce energy.”
Both types of diabetes are included in this definition. On the one hand, type 1 is an autoimmune disease that occurs due to the presence of antibodies in a person that “eat”‘ cells that produce insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas and, in particular, by a type of cell called beta. When antibodies attack them, the person is left without the ability to produce insulin and the disease appears. Lozano notes that of the total number of Aragonese with diabetes, “5% are type 1.” The remaining 95% belong to the second type.
The body has basal or slow insulin, which is synthesized constantly throughout the day. In turn, it is quickly produced by the pancreas when a person eats to compensate for food. How Type 1 diabetics cannot produce these hormones and “need to take both basal and rapid insulin.”says Lozano. And it should be given to them depending on their blood sugar level.
This trait makes a difference compared to type 2.”Type 2 diabetes usually occurs in people who lead a sedentary lifestyle.with metabolic problems. “Their problem is that the insulin can’t work properly,” Lozano says. The expert notes that not all of them require insulin treatment, but rather…“The vast majority are given other medications.”. If you need it, you only need the basal one.
This type of weekly insulin is slow, so it will only allow patients with type 2 diabetes to forget about daily injections. People with type 1, although they will only have to inject basal once a week, will still need a daily injection with each meal.
Spain is the second country in Europe with the most diabetes
The prevalence of diabetes in Spain is 14.8%, the second highest in Europe.according to the Spanish Society of Diabetes (SED). One in seven adults suffer from this condition, which occurs when blood sugar levels are too high. Except, Diabetes-related healthcare costs in Spain have reached €14 billion.which places the country, the scientific community warns, among the top 10 states in health care spending. Diabetes is also a disease that, like obesity (both pathologies usually go hand in hand), is increasing due to a sedentary lifestyle and which is also increasingly onset at a younger age.
It should be noted that 30.3% (almost a third) of Spaniards have not been diagnosed with diabetes. This means they are not treated properly, which can cause serious and life-threatening complications such as heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, blindness or even lower limb amputation. To the President of the SED Foundation, Antonio Perez “diabetes screening” should be carried out in asymptomatic people any age with excess weight or other risk factors. People without risk factors are recommended to undergo these screenings between the ages of 35 and 45 years.
Endocrinologists insist on reducing underdiagnosis, which especially concerns type 2 diabetes. More than 90% of people with diabetes have type 2. The growth of this indicator is due, according to SED, to the complex interaction of socio-economic, demographic, environmental and genetic phenomena.
“People are forced to take insulin every day because it seems more traumatic,” Lozano says. This benefit, the expert shows, is reflected in older patients, who typically rely on caregivers or family members to monitor treatment. “Sometimes confusion occurs when a caregiver injects an elderly patient in the morning and a family member injects him again during the day he thinks no one has given him a shot yet,” Lozano says. A weekly journal will help you avoid these mistakes.
Added to this advantage are others, such as stability.. Lozano points out that weekly insulin “is a more stable insulin in the blood and causes less variability, so hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia is less likely to occur.” And this plays into the hands of type 2 diabetics, who, unlike type 1, do not have to adapt insulin depending on physical activity or blood sugar levels. “Weekly insulin is less adaptable to this because it is a very stable insulin,” Lozano says. In this sense, the doctor points out that “there are many patients who do not see results in their disease because they do not achieve good control over the treatment and forget to administer the daily dose.”
For all this, Patients are waiting to arrive weekly insulin “with desire”says Lozano. He waits until he has experience to see “what kind of results it produces.”