Once weekly insulin refers to a class of basal insulin analogs designed for administration once per week, as opposed to the traditional once-daily basal insulin injections.
The primary examples of these insulins are insulin icodec and insulin efsitora.
Insulin icodec is a recombinant human insulin analog with an ultra-long half-life of approximately 196 hours, allowing for once-weekly dosing.
Insulin icodec provides comparable glycemic control to once-daily basal insulins, such as insulin glargine U100, with a similar risk profile for hypoglycemia.
Insulin efsitora alfa (BIF), is a fusion protein combining a novel single-chain insulin variant with a human IgG Fc domain.
This design supports once-weekly administration, and has shown that it achieves similar glycemic control to once-daily insulin degludec in both insulin-naive patients with type 2 diabetes and those with type 1 diabetes, with no significant increase in hypoglycemia or other adverse events.