Once-a-week insulin injection successfully trialed at U of A

A new form of insulin that would mean fewer injections for patients is now available in Canada.

Insulin Icodec, being sold under the name Awiqli, is the first once-a-week basal insulin injection. Canada is the first country in the world to get the product that could treat Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics.

Endocrinologist Dr. Peter Senior led a trial of the drug at the University of Alberta.

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“I think Canada in many ways does punch above its weight for diabetes research.”

Insulin is a hormone that tells the body when to use sugar from the blood. Senior says daily injections typically sits under the skin and is slowly released into the bloodstream. Awiqli is biomedically engineered to float around in the bloodstream and slowly interact with insulin receptors over time.

“if you have some kind of fuel, you don’t want to open the lid and light a match because it would all go up at once. But if you’ve got some kind of drip feed, that means it burns slowly over, you know, a week or however long you need.”

Insulin icodec, which will be sold under the brand name Awiqli, is shown in this handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Novo Nordisk Canada

Although the weekly insulin has Health Canada's approval for treatment of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, endocrinologists say it will be mostly useful for Type 2 patients. That's largely because patients with Type 1 diabetes would still have to give themselves additional fast-acting insulin injections at mealtimes every day because their bodies don't make any insulin on their own.

“I think the initial steps for many will be let's start in people who've never taken insulin before,” Senior says. "And as we get comfortable probably saying, OK, we can apply this in other situations, it's sort of a go from there.”

Diabetes Canada says there are nearly 12 million Canadians and more than 1.2 million Albertans with diabetes or prediabetes.

Senior says it’s an advancement that he hopes will make lives easier and health better.

“You've got a choice of 365 shots in a year versus 52 shots a year. That's quite a big difference.”

Canada's Drug Agency, which assesses drugs and recommends whether they should qualify for reimbursement under public drug plans, estimates the cost of Awiqli will be more than $1,350 a year per patient.