What is unique about Lantus insulin and describe its indications and usage?
Lantus is indicated for once-daily subcutaneous administration at bedtime in the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus or adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who require basal (long-acting) insulin for the control of hyperglycemia. Only a doctor can decide for sure if Lantus is the right therapy. However, patients may want to discuss Lantus with their doctor if any of these apply: * Patient?s blood sugar is too high despite efforts to control it with diet, exercise or oral diabetes medication. * Patient is currently using an intermediate-acting insulin (such as NPH) once a day and wants 24-hour basal coverage. * Patient would rather take one injection of Lantus than two of NPH.
DESCRIPTION LANTUS® (insulin glargine [rDNA origin] injection) is a sterile solution of insulin glargine for use as an injection. Insulin glargine is a recombinant human insulin analog that is a long-acting (up to 24-hour duration of action), parenteral blood-glucose-lowering agent. (See CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY). LANTUS is produced by recombinant DNA technology utilizing a non-pathogenic laboratory strain of Escherichia coli (K12) as the production organism. Insulin glargine differs from human insulin in that the amino acid asparagine at position A21 is replaced by glycine and two arginines are added to the C-terminus of the B-chain. Chemically, it is 21A-Gly-30Ba-L-Arg-30Bb-L-Arg-human insulin and has the empirical formula C267H404N72O78S6 and a molecular weight of 6063. It has the following structural formula: http://products.sanofi-aventis.us/lantus/images/lantus_chain_chart_black.Gif
