1st weekly insulin injection coming to Canada. How does it work?
Global News
Awiqli, a weekly insulin injection, will soon become available in Canada, which doctors say will 'make life easier' for people living with diabetes.
A weekly insulin injection will soon become available in Canada, which doctors say will “make life easier” for people living with diabetes and is an “exciting” treatment to have in the toolbox.
Starting June 30, Canada will become the first country to make the medication, called insulin icodec, available, drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced on Monday.
The medication, which will be sold under the brand name Awiqli, was approved by Health Canada in March for the treatment of adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
“I think it’s a real convenience,” said Daniel Drucker, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and senior scientist at Sinai Health’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute.
“We know that many people with Type 2 diabetes often have to treat cholesterol, they often have to treat high blood pressure in addition to their blood sugar, so having less burden in terms of number of days that you need to take your medicine is clearly an improvement in quality of life, and it’s more convenient,” he told Global News in an interview.
More than 11 million Canadians are living with diabetes or prediabetes, according to Diabetes Canada.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the body is unable to produce or properly use insulin – a hormone that controls blood sugar levels.
Type 2 diabetes is more common, accounting for more than 90 per cent of total diabetes cases in Canada.
