Weekly tirzepatide beat mealtime insulin on blood sugar, and moved weight the other way

Adding weekly tirzepatide to basal insulin lowered HbA1c by 2.1% over 52 weeks, against 1.1% when three daily mealtime insulin injections were added instead. In the tirzepatide arms 68% finished under 7% HbA1c, against 36% on mealtime insulin. Weight went the opposite way in each group: down 6.7, 9.2 and 11 kg on the three tirzepatide doses, up 3.2 kg on insulin.

Basal-bolus is the workhorse regimen for type 2 diabetes that basal insulin alone no longer holds, and it costs a person three mealtime injections a day on top of the basal dose. SURPASS-6 ran the two approaches head to head for a year in people averaging 8.8% HbA1c, 14 years of diabetes and 90.7 kg, and the tirzepatide arms finished on 13 units of basal insulin against 62 in the comparison arm.

Nobody in the trial was blinded. SURPASS-6 was open label, both arms kept a basal insulin that was actively re-titrated, and what was compared is therefore tirzepatide added to insulin rather than tirzepatide instead of it. What is still unknown is whether the gap holds past 52 weeks, and that decision belongs with a qualified clinician who knows a person's health history.

Read the full story at Medscape en Español ↗

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