Head-to-head evidence
Afrezza vs insulin degludec
Same mechanism, same race: design-graded trial evidence for both assets, with the grading rationale shown. Grades describe the quality of the evidence, never the merits of either security.
Type 2 Diabetes
Shared mechanism: Insulin receptor (basal) · full Type 2 Diabetes pipeline
Afrezza
Marketed by MannKind Corporation
NCT00332488 · Phase 3 · completed
The trial randomized 528 participants across three treatment groups and used an active comparator, but it was open-label rather than blinded and its primary endpoint was the surrogate measure HbA1c. The primary comparison was not met: HbA1c decreased by 0.70% with inhaled insulin plus metformin versus 0.78% with metformin plus secretagogue (p=0.420).
insulin degludec · Tresiba
Marketed by Novo Nordisk
NCT00982644 · Phase 3 · completed
The trial was randomized and actively controlled, with 1,030 participants, but it was not blinded and its primary endpoint was the surrogate measure of change in HbA1c rather than a hard clinical outcome. HbA1c changed by -1.06% with insulin degludec versus -1.19% with insulin glargine, but no statistical comparison is reported, so whether the primary endpoint was met is unclear.
Next expected readout: March 2027 · NCT07032688 (registry estimate)
The full competitive landscape for each asset (every same-race competitor with aligned evidence, sortable) is on the asset pages: Afrezza's landscape · insulin degludec's landscape