Liraglutide
What is Victoza (Liraglutide)?
Liraglutide is a new medication for the treatment of patients with Type 2 diabetes, which could also have the potential to work as a weight loss drug. Marketed as Victoza, Liraglutide has been approved in the U.S for treatment for diabetes and in the UK it has just been recommended by NICE (The National Institute for Clinical Excellence) as part of a triple therapy for diabetes.
How does Victoza (Liraglutide) work?
Liraglutide is delivered by way of a daily subcutaneous injection and makes patients feel more full and satisfied with less food. It also reduces the speed by which the stomach empties, which also makes patients being treated with Liraglutide, crave food less.
Is Liraglutide effective?
In a Europe-wide trial of 554 people with a body mass index of between 30 and 40 (making them clinically obese), patients lost significant amounts of weight.
Sticking to a calorie controlled diet and taking exercise, at week 20, the following results were observed:
- Average weight loss was 7.2kg for those on the 3mg dose, compared with those taking the obesity medication orlistat (Xenical), who lost 4.1 kg, and those taking the placebo, where the average weight lost was only 2.8 kg
- 76% of patients lost at least 5% of their body weight, compared with 44% on orlistat and 30% on the placebo
- Patients taking the lower 1.2 mg dose lost 4.8 kg, those taking the 1.8mg dose lost 5.5 kg and those taking the 2.4mg dose lost 6.3 kg
What are the side effects of Liraglutide?
Most patients taking Liraglutide did not experience any side effects. Some patients reported nausea and vomiting but the events were not sufficiently grave to make them stop taking the medication and were generally short-lived.
There have however been concerns that Liraglutide may cause thyroid tumours after mice developed the cancer. However, it is thought that mice have a specific sensitivity, which does not apply to humans. There have also been reports of an increased likelihood of pancreatitis.
When will Liraglutide be available?
Liraglutide has already been approved by the European Medicines Agency for diabetes so approval as an obesity treatment should be easier than if it were a brand new drug.
Register your interest in Liraglutide
If you register with us for a weight loss consultation then we will keep you informed if Liraglutide and other weight loss medications get approval for use in the UK.
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