Liraglutide: Novo Nordisk Diabetes Drug, Better Than Insulin Therapy?

Filed in archive Developments , Research , Treatment on June 21, 2007

Phase III clinical trial of Novo Nordisk's investigational diabetes drug liraglutide revealed better control of blood sugar compared to insulin therapy in type 2 diabetes patients.

The said trial tested liraglutide in 581 patients with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled by two of the most widely used oral antidiabetic drugs: metformin and a sulfonylurea (glimepiride).

The average HbA1c level at the beginning of the study was between 8.0% and 8.5% and at the end of the study, more than 50% of patients in the liraglutide group had reached the American Diabetes Association goal of HbA1c < 7%.

Furthermore, more than 35% achieved the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists HbA1c target of <= 6.5%. The HbA1c reduction achieved in the liraglutide group was more than 0.2 percentage points better than in the insulin glargine group, a difference which is statistically significant.

The subject patients in the said study did not stop taking metformin and sulfonylurea and were randomised to add one daily injection of liraglutide, placebo or insulin glargine.

A once-daily human analogue of the naturally occurring hormone glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1), liraglutide works by stimulating the release of insulin only when glucose levels become too high.

As opposed to most other antidiabetic treatments, liraglutide leads to weight loss instead of weight increase.

According to Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, executive vice president and chief science officer of Novo Nordisk:

"We are very pleased with these first results from the liraglutide phase 3 programme, showing that liraglutide provides improved glucose control compared to insulin glargine while, at the same time, leading to significant weight loss."

In this phase 3 trial, liraglutide was well tolerated in combination with metformin and glimepiride, with nausea at an absolute level of between 10 and 15% as the most frequently reported adverse event in the liraglutide group.

Maybe insulin therapy has met its (better) match?

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