Pharmaceutical Business review

FDA approves extended use of Novo Nordisk Levemir insulin in children

The basal insulin analog is approved for type 1 diabetes patients from age two through adulthood and adult patients with type 2 diabetes.

Pediatric Diabetes Editor-in-Chief Mark Sperling said, "Levemir, with its approval from the FDA, is a particularly welcome addition to our treatment options for some of our youngest patients with type 1 diabetes."

The approval was based on data that showed that Levemir is an equally efficacious treatment option for two- to five-year-old children (n=82) with type 1 diabetes, compared with Neutral Protamine Hagedorn (NPH) insulin.

The study observed that no patients treated with Levemir had a severe hypoglycemic episode, whereas there were six reported episodes in three patients treated with NPH.