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To the Editor,
Lamb and Syed [1] reviewed the pharmacological and clinical properties of LY2963016 insulin glargine 100 U/ml (LY insulin glargine), a biosimilar to insulin glargine 100 U/ml (Gla-100, Lantus®). They considered several studies that compared LY insulin glargine and Gla-100 and concluded that the efficacy and safety profiles of these two insulins are similar.
I would like to draw to readers’ attention that, while the authors refer to Gla-100 as the reference insulin, this definition is only provided within the abstract and introduction. The main body of the article simply referred to “reference insulin glargine,” and I believe this may create some confusion. Indeed, since 2015, in most countries, a different formulation of insulin glargine has also been available in addition to insulin glargine 100 U/ml (Gla-100). This formulation is insulin glargine 300 U/ml (Gla-300), which has different characteristics (a prolonged duration of action, more even steady-state pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic [2] profile, and lower incidence of hypoglycemia [3, 4] than Gla-100).
To avoid potential misinterpretation by the reader on the similarities of LY insulin glargine and the reference molecule, I believe it should be clarified that Gla-100 is the “reference insulin” in the studies reviewed, not Gla-300.
Best regards,
Riccardo Perfetti
References
Lamb YN, Syed YY. LY2963016 insulin glargine: a review in type 1 and 2 diabetes. BioDrugs. 2018;32(1):91–8.
Becker RH, Dahmen R, Bergmann K, Lehmann A, Jax T, Heise T. New insulin glargine 300 Units · mL−1 provides a more even activity profile and prolonged glycemic control at steady state compared with insulin glargine 100 Units · mL−1. Diabetes Care. 2015;38(4):637–43.
Home PD, Bergenstal RM, Bolli GB, et al. New insulin glargine 300 Units/mL versus glargine 100 Units/mL in people with type 1 diabetes: a randomized, phase 3a, open-label clinical trial (EDITION 4). Diabetes Care. 2015;38(12):2217–25.
Ritzel R, Roussel R, Bolli GB, et al. Patient-level meta-analysis of the EDITION 1, 2 and 3 studies: glycaemic control and hypoglycaemia with new insulin glargine 300 U/ml versus glargine 100 U/ml in people with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2015;17(9):859–67.
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Riccardo Perfetti is a Sanofi employee and shareholder.
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This comment refers to the article available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40259-018-0259-4.
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Perfetti, R. Comment on: LY2963016 Insulin Glargine: A Review in Type 1 and 2 Diabetes. BioDrugs 32, 177 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40259-018-0270-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40259-018-0270-9