Dr. Daniel Drucker of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital -- affiliated with the University of Toronto -- says there is no available therapy for type 2 diabetes that patients can receive once a week.

The treatment, Exenatide, prescribed once weekly, is the first in a new class of long-acting medications that mimic the action of GLP-1 -- glucagon-like peptide -- a naturally occurring hormone that is produced in the gut after eating.

The report compared outcomes for patients self-injecting Exenatide once weekly against results from the conventional 14 injections a week.

In an international multicenter six-month clinical trial that involved 300 eligible patients, 75 percent of study subjects who received the once-weekly Exenatide got their diabetes under control, as defined by reaching target glucose levels.

Multiple drugs based on GLP-1 action are under active clinical development, and the new once-weekly treatment is expected to undergo Canadian regulatory review in 2009, Drucker says.

The finding is published in the Lancet journal.