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Liraglutide: A Review of Its Use in Adult Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

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Abstract

Subcutaneous liraglutide (Victoza®), a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist, is approved for the treatment of adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Once-daily liraglutide, as monotherapy or add-on therapy to other antidiabetic agents (including basal insulin), was an effective and generally well tolerated treatment in adult patients with type 2 diabetes in several well-designed phase III trials and in the real world clinical practice setting. In addition to improving glycaemic control, liraglutide had beneficial effects on bodyweight, systolic blood pressure and surrogate measures of β-cell function in clinical trials, with these benefits maintained during long-term treatment (≤2 years). Liraglutide has a convenient once-daily administration regimen, a low potential for drug–drug interactions and low propensity to cause hypoglycaemia. Thus, liraglutide continues to be a useful option for the management of type 2 diabetes. This article reviews the therapeutic use of liraglutide in adult patients with type 2 diabetes and summarizes its pharmacological properties.

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Disclosure

The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding. During the peer review process, the manufacturer of the agent under review was offered an opportunity to comment on this article. Changes resulting from comments received were made by the authors on the basis of scientific and editorial merit. Lesley J. Scott is a salaried employee of Adis/Springer.

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The manuscript was reviewed by: S.C. Bain, Swansea University, Institute of Life Science, Swansea, UK; D.S.H. Bell, Southside Endocrinology, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA; J.G. Eriksson, University of Helsinki, Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, Finland and Helsinki University Central Hospital, Unit of General Practice, Helsinki, Finland; B.B. Yeap, University of Western Australia, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, Fremantle and Fiona Stanley Hospitals, Perth, WA, Australia.

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Scott, L.J. Liraglutide: A Review of Its Use in Adult Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Drugs 74, 2161–2174 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40265-014-0321-6

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