What Is Ryzodeg and How Do I Use It? (Video Explanation)

Video Transcript

So I want to just talk a little bit about Ryzodeg. Ryzodeg is a new insulin that is being launched all over the world. Essentially Ryzodeg is a combination of a long acting insulin called insulin degludec and the brand name for that is Tresiba and that is mixed in with Novorapid or insulin aspart.

So it is a basal insulin, a long slow insulin combined with a rapid acting insulin. It is therefore similar to other mix insulins and traditionally it is being used in a very similar situation that we would have used something like Novomix 30, HumalogMix 25 or Mixtard 30/70. Twice daily insulin with lunch and dinner to get decent coverage throughout the day.

But actually Ryzodeg is a lot more flexible and a can be used a lot smarter as an option moving forward than Novomix, which has been around for about 20 years.

And the reason it is so much more useful particularly in the hands of someone who understands how to get the best out of it is because it has a very long acting basal component, tresiba (degludec).

So you can use it like this. You might choose to have it maybe twice a day or alternatively you can use the long acting insulin in here as your background. And then have a Novorapid dose with your breakfast, lunch and the Ryzodeg at dinner.

Now let's say you are not going to eat very much dinner today because it is such a long acting insulin you can then exchange Ryzodeg and have it at breakfast. And if breakfast is your main carbohydrate meal you would have Novorapid at lunch and dinner. But again it is very long acting so maybe the day after you think well actually I'm not going to have a very big breakfast, I'm going to have a big lunch so you can literally move your Ryzodeg dose from meal to meal to meal depending on your carbohydrate intake and your lifestyle, critically your lifestyle.

And maybe you think well actually, I don't eat very big meals, so the Novorapid component is too big for me. The amount of carbohydrate that I'm consuming is not enough for the 30% Novorapid in Ryzodeg. Well very simple, you just split the Ryzodeg in two and have Novorapid as your third meal. And again because it is so long acting you can swap and have Novorapid with breakfast, Ryzodeg at lunch and dinner. Alternatively, if you don't have breakfast you could just have nothing for breakfast but Ryzodeg at lunch and dinner.

The flexibility is really quite impressive in terms of trying to match your lifestyle and the ability to tweak the system to get the best results is great.

So Ryzodeg is becoming more and more available. I think it is something being aware of because it maybe something that you are going to need to know about.

The other thing I want to show you about Ryzodeg, very quickly, is it is in the new Flex touch pens. So traditional pens you dial up, and when you dial up you can see the plunger moves out. With Ryzodeg, actually you dial and the plunger stays where it is. And it is a much gentler button compared to the traditional pens.