Victoza: New Diabetes Drug, Better Than Byetta?

Filed in archive Developments , Treatment on June 14, 2009

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Novo Nordisk has a new diabetes drug under clinical trials - Victoza (liraglutide) - that is proving much better than Byetta (exenatide).

From WebMD:

Byetta is the first of the class of type 2 diabetes drugs called GLP-1 analogs. The drug takes advantage of the body's own signaling system to increase insulin output in response to meals.

Byetta is a popular drug, and it's helped many patients. But liraglutide - soon to be called Victoza if approved by the FDA - works better, says Lawrence Blonde, MD, director of the diabetes clinical research unit at Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans.

"Our direct comparison study shows patients who took liraglutide once a day had a greater reduction in [average blood sugar levels] at the end of the 26-week study than did [Byetta] twice a day," Blonde tells WebMD. "Obviously, once-a-day injections would be preferred by many patients because of the convenience - and it is not tied to meals. Liraglutide can be taken any time as long as you take it the same time each day."

Remember that Byetta has been implicated in pancreatitis and death. And we thought it was the best thing that ever happened to diabetes treatment...

Byetta is a product of Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lily.