Initiating therapy or switching to biphasic insulin aspart improves glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes: an Indian experience from the A1chieve study.

Biphasic insulin aspart 30 (BIAsp 30) has been used in patients for almost a decade; There is a wealth of knowledge from clinical trials to document its efficacy and safety and suggest that BIAsp 30 is an option for initiation and intensification of insulin therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The A1chieve was a non-interventional study that explored the safety and effectiveness of initiating or switching to insulin analogues in routine clinical practice in more than 60,000 patients from 28 different countries. In this manuscript, we discuss the findings from the subgroup of the Indian cohort who were treated with BIAsp 30. In a cohort of 15287 who were on BIAsp 30, 12645 (83%) were insulin naive and 2642 (17%) had been on insulin therapy earlier. Glycaemic parameters were high at baseline. Mean (SD) HbA1c was 9.2% (1.3) in the these and was comparable in the insulin naive and insulin experienced groups. After 24 weeks of therapy with BIAsp 30, there were reductions in HbA1c in both the insulin naive group, [-1.8 (1.3)] and insulin experienced group [-1.6 (1.3)]. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and postprandial plasma glucose (PPG) levels were also reduced significantly from baseline [-3.4 (2.7) and -4.8 (3.8) mmol/L, respectively, p < 0.05). Overall, hypoglycaemia decreased from 1.33 events/patient years at baseline to 0.19 events/patient years at 24 weeks. There was also an increase in quality of life score as evaluated by EQ-5D questionnaire. Initiating insulin therapy with or switching to BIAsp 30 in patients with poor glycaemic control leads to an improvement in glycaemic profile with no major hypoglycaemia or clinically significant weight gain. Therapy with BIAsp 30 also improves the quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes.