Novo Nordisk’s anti-diabetes drug liraglutide (Victoza) helps lose excess weight: Study

Liraglutide (Victoza) could help overweight patients to lose their excess weight by at least 10 pounds besides reducing the incidence of hypoglycaemia comapred with another anti obesity medication exenatide (Byetta) from Eli Lilly, a Novo Nordisk study found.

Novo Nordisk study involving 564 people found just five months of Liraglutide (Victoza) injections helped them lose 4.8 kilograms (10.6 pounds) to 7.2 kilograms of body weight, compared with 4.1 kilograms for those on exenatide (Byetta)  and 2.8 kilograms for those given placebo.

Liraglutide (Victoza)is a human glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue developed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Victoza lowers blood glucose by stimulating the release of insulin when blood sugar levels are high and also by slowing gastric emptying.

Victoza reduces body weight and body fat mass through mechanisms involving reduced hunger and lowered energy intake.

The European Commission granted marketing authorisation for liraglutide (Victoza) on 30 June 2009 for all 27 European Union member states and it is already on the market in Germany, the UK and Denmark.

Liraglutide (Victoza) is indicated for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus to achieve glycaemic control in combination with metformin or a sulphonylurea in patients with insufficient glycaemic control despite maximal tolerated dose of monotherapy with metformin or sulphonylurea, and in combination with metformin and a sulphonylurea or metformin and a thiazolidinedione in patients with insufficient glycaemic control despite dual therapy.

Liraglutide’s positive effect on lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes and  liraglutide’s ability to lower both HbA1c and weight without inducing hypoglycaemia versus that of the other active comparators in the LEAD programme including exenatide, glimepiride, rosiglitazone and insulin glargine. Each of the meta-analyses comprised 3,967 people with type 2 diabetes.

In the lipid meta-analysis, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein, free fatty acids and triglycerides were all statistically significantly reduced from baseline with liraglutide over 26 weeks of treatment. Furthermore, total cholesterol and low density lipoproteins were significantly reduced with liraglutide treatment compared to rosiglitazone, glimepiride or insulin glargine.

In the meta-analysis evaluating efficacy on combined treatment targets of HbA1c and weight without hypoglycaemia, more patients in the liraglutide group reached HbA1c with no weight gain or hypoglycaemia than those on comparator treatments.

LEAD 6 was a 26-week, open-label trial of 464 patients with type 2 diabetes and HbA1c levels between 7–11%, who were randomised to once-daily liraglutide or twice-daily exenatide on a metformin ± sulphonylurea therapy background. Results from this direct comparison trial were published in The Lancet.

In this trial patients were either switched from exenatide to liraglutide or continued on liraglutide for a period of 14 weeks. All 389 patients who completed the randomised trial entered into the extension phase.

A subgroup of 379 patients had treatment satisfaction evaluated using two versions of the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire: status (DTSQs) at baseline and week 26, and change (DTSQc) at week 26, in the patient-reported outcomes analysis.

Patients had higher overall treatment satisfaction with liraglutide than they did with exenatide and, in particular, their perception of hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia was reduced more by liraglutide than by exenatide.

313 patients answered the DTSQs at weeks 34 and 40 and the DTSQc at week 34 in the 14-week extension. These results showed that switching patients from exenatide to liraglutide further improves patient satisfaction, as evidenced by the larger rise in treatment satisfaction scores for switched patients compared to those who continued on liraglutide from weeks 26–40.

Based in Denmark, Novo Nordisk is a world leader in diabetes care. Novo Nordisk also has a leading position within areas such as haemostasis management, growth hormone therapy and hormone replacement therapy.