Uptake of newer diabetes products dominate trends in U.S. adults with diabetes

New research published in JAMA Network Open finds that insulin glargine and other insulin analogs are the most-used forms of insulin in the United States, alongside pen devices as a delivery method.

The findings were derived from the Health National Disease and Therapeutic Index, which includes diagnostic and prescribing information for patients being treated by office-based physicians.

According to the study data, there were a total of 27,860,691 insulin treatment visits for type 2 diabetes from 2016 to 2020. Long-acting analog insulins were indicated in 67.3% of such visits in 2016, and 74.8% of them in 2020. Meanwhile, rapid-acting insulin analogs accounted for 21.2% of insulin-related treatment visits in 2016 and 16.5% in 2020. Intermediate-and short-acting human insulins made up only 3.7% of such visits in 2016 and 2.6% in 2020.

Together, analog insulins accounted for 92.7% and 86.3% of insulin treatment visits in 2016 and 2020, respectively, while the human insulins accounted for just 3.7% of such visits in 2016, and 2.6% in 2020. Biosimilar analog insulins first appeared in the Health National Disease and Therapeutic Index in 2017, and represented 2.6% of visits that year and 8.2% by 2020. The proportion of treatment visits for insulin vials/syringes declined from 63.9% in 2016 to 41.1% in 2020, while visits for insulin pens increased from 36.1% to 58.7%.