Long-acting insulin analogues for diabetes mellitus

Objective The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the clinical efficacy and economic implications of long-acting insulin analogues, specifically insulin glargine (IGlar) and insulin detemir (IDet), for the treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM). [...] Insulin is a hormone secreted by the beta cells from the islets of the pancreas, in response to increased levels of glucose in the blood. [...] The costs of the insulin analogues and conventional human insulin appear in Table 6. IGlar is 3.5 to 6.6 times the cost of NPH (Humulin N). [...] Prices for conventional insulin taken from PPS.19 Health Canada issued Notices of Compliance for IGlar and IDet in 2002 and 2005 respectively.14,15 The FDA approved the use of IGlar and IDet in the US in 2000 and 2005 respectively.16,17 2 THE ISSUE More than 2.25 million Canadians have DM. [...] We searched the Internet using the Google and Dogpile search engines and found additional information on the web sites of professional associations such as the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the Canadian Diabetes Association, the American Diabetes Association, and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and their associated conference sites.