Basal insulin analogues--a review of recent data on efficacy and safety.

Conventional basal insulin preparations have to be resuspended prior to injection and have low therapeutic efficacy and drawbacks like nocturnal hypoglycaemia. There is evidence supporting improved pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of basal insulin analogues, glargine and detemir as compared with NPH. Initiation and titration of basal insulin analogues helps patients to improve compliance due to low injection frequency compared to the conventional basal insulin. The unique protraction mechanism adds advantage to insulin detemir in terms of high predictability. Also these analogues have better patient adherence, improved quality of life and higher treatment satisfaction. So basal insulin analogues particularly are better treatment options for treatment of diabetes.