Long-acting basal insulin analogs: latest developments and clinical usefulness.

All patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus need insulin treatment permanently, and many patients with type 2 diabetes will require insulin therapy. Basal insulin analogs are increasingly used in the treatment of diabetes, with the aim of offering a better replication of the pattern of basal endogenous secretion of insulin. Their flatter pharmacodynamic profile, with a much lower peak of action, their slow and continuous absorption into the systemic circulation, and prolonged duration, more closely duplicate the endogenous insulin secretion leading to physiological basal glycemic control and affording more flexible treatment with fewer hypoglycemia episodes.