For years, people with type 2 diabetes who needed insulin had to administer an injection daily. Eli Lilly’s newly approved insulin is set to bring a dramatic reduction in that burden from roughly 365 injections a year to just 52.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Onswik (insulin efsitora alfa-gobe), a once-weekly basal insulin for adults with type 2 diabetes. It is designed to provide a steady level of insulin over seven days and is used alongside diet and exercise to control blood sugar. Find out how different weekly insulin is from the daily shots that patients are used to?Lilly's Once-Weekly Insulin Gets FDA ApprovalInsulin is a hormone that helps glucose move from the bloodstream into cells, where it can be used for energy. It also helps reduce the amount of glucose produced by the liver. People with type 2 diabetes may eventually need insulin when their bodies do not produce enough of it or cannot use it effectively.Basal insulin is long-acting insulin designed to work in the background throughout the day and night, helping keep blood sugar levels under control between meals and overnight.Until now, commonly used basal insulins like insulin glargine and insulin degludec have generally required daily injections.Onswik is a long-acting insulin analogue designed to remain active for an entire week. Instead of injecting a smaller amount every day, patients receive one subcutaneous injection on the same day each week. That could reduce the number of basal insulin injections by more than 300 a year compared with daily treatment. For someone who finds daily injections difficult to maintain, that development could be gamechanging.Also read: CagriSema Beats Lilly’s Mounjaro & Zepbound In New Trial: All About Novo’s Next-Gen Obesity DrugComparison Between Weekly Insulin & Daily InsulinLilly's late-stage QWINT programme included more than 3,400 adults with type 2 diabetes across four Phase 3 studies. Onswik met its primary goal in each study, reducing HbA1c, a measure of average blood sugar over time, by an amount that was not inferior to daily basal insulin. The studies included people who had never previously used insulin as well as people already receiving insulin treatment.So the significance of the approval is not that weekly insulin necessarily works better than daily insulin. Rather, it offers comparable blood-sugar control with far fewer injections.Taking insulin every day can become another task in an already demanding diabetes care routine. Missed or delayed doses can make blood sugar management more difficult. A weekly option could simplify treatment for some patients and potentially make it easier to stay consistent. But convenience does not mean the treatment becomes risk-free.Also read: Hundreds Of American GLP-1 Users Sue Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly Over Vision Loss: What Is NAION?What Are The Risks & Who Can Take It? The most important risk remains hypoglycaemia, or dangerously low blood sugar, which is a known risk with insulin.Severe hypoglycaemia can cause confusion, seizures, loss of consciousness and, in serious cases, death. Other reported adverse effects of Onswik include allergic reactions, injection-site reactions, changes in fat tissue at injection sites, itching, rash, swelling and weight gain.The FDA also warns about medication errors and accidental overdose, low potassium levels and fluid retention or heart failure when the medicine is used with certain other drugs. The FDA approval is specifically for adults with type 2 diabetes. Onswik is not recommended for people with type 1 diabetes due to the risk of severe hypoglycaemia. It is also not a replacement for other aspects of diabetes management.