Good A1C control and less weight gain on Novo Nordisk's Levemir

Danish insulin giant Novo Nordisk reported results from the German cohort of 10,276 patients enrolled in its observational PREDCITIVE trial at the 66th annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, held in Washington DC, which found that its drug candidate Levemir (insulin detemir [rDNA origin] injection) improved A1C blood sugar control and reduced episodes of major hypoglycemia with no weight gain in actual clinical practice.

Novo Nordisk noted that A1C levels were reduced significantly in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients on Levemir, adding that, patients with type 2 diabetes lost weight, while type 1 patients maintained their weight. According to the firm, weight gain is a common side effect of insulin therapy and Levemir is the first insulin to show less weight gain versus other basal insulins in 12 of 12 controlled clinical trials.