Risk of low blood sugar from Novo Nordisk's weekly insulin treatment, regulator says

Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Joergensen. Novo has tested its weekly insulin icodec in six late-stage trials involving more than 4,000 adults with diabetes, out of which only one tested it in patients with type 1 diabetes. Picture: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty

The US Food and Drug Administration's staff report has said the use of Novo Nordisk's long-acting weekly insulin had an increased risk of low blood sugar in patients with type 1 diabetes, who are more insulin-dependent.

Novo is aiming to become the first to bring to the market a weekly insulin product, offering an alternative to the daily insulin injections for millions of patients with type 1 diabetes and the more common type 2 patients.