Glucose Control and Weight Change Associated with Treatment with Exenatide Compared with Basal Insulin: A Retrospective Study

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to compare glycemic and weight change outcomes for type 2 diabetes patients treated with either exenatide once-weekly (EQW) or exenatide twice-daily (EBID) with those patients treated with basal insulin (BI). METHODS: Retrospective data (2010–2014) were extracted from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, a UK primary care database. Patients previously naïve to injectable therapy initiating EQW, EBID, or BI were extracted and matched by propensity score within two analyses (EQW vs BI and EBID vs BI). Absolute and relative change in HbA1c and weight from baseline and the proportion of patients achieving HbA1c ≤ 7.0% (53 mmol/mol) combined with weight reduction targets of (1) any weight loss or (2) ≥ 5.0% from baseline were compared at 6 and 12–24 months. RESULTS: A total of 485 patients initiated EQW, 3573 EBID, and 13,503 BI. In the propensity matched EQW versus BI analysis, mean HbA1c decreased with changes of − 1.33% (− 14.5 mmol/mol) and − 1.24% (− 13.5 mmol/mol) at 6 months and − 1.19% (− 13.0 mmol/mol) and − 1.17% (− 12.8 mmol/mol) at 12–24 months, respectively. Respective weight change was − 3.7 kg versus + 1.2 kg (p < 0.001) and − 3.2 kg versus + 2.5 kg (p < 0.001). Significantly more EQW patients achieved the combined HbA1c ≤ 7.0% (53 mmol/mol) and weight loss target (22.4% versus 9.9% at 6 months and 18.2% versus 8.0% at 12–24 months, respectively) and HbA1c ≤ 7.0% (53 mmol/mol) and minimum 5% weight loss (11.8% versus 3.7% at 6 months, and 8.0% versus 0.0% at 12–24 months). For EBID versus BI, similar results were found. CONCLUSION: In this real-world data analysis, exenatide QW and exenatide BID were associated with similar glycemic control and greater weight reduction compared with basal insulin.