New research suggests that the diabetes drug Liraglutide helps overweight and obese patients lose weight, HealthDay reported.
UK researchers found that the daily injection of the diabetes drug liraglutide with a modified insulin pen device, in addition to diet and exercise, resulted in greater weight loss over 56 weeks compared with placebo.
Obesity is a chronic disease and a significant global health challenge. Weight loss is recommended for patients with type 2 diabetes.
"To our knowledge, this is the first study specifically designed to investigate the efficacy of liraglutide for weight management in patients with type 2 diabetes and also the first study to investigate liraglutide at the higher 3.0-mg dose in a population with type 2 diabetes," the authors wrote in the study. "In the present trial, liraglutide (3.0 mg), as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, was effective and generally well tolerated and was significantly better than placebo on all 3 co-primary weight-related end points."
For the study, researchers randomly assigned 846 overweight or obese study adults with diabetes with type 2 diabetes to once-daily injections of liraglutide, a lower dose of liraglutide, or placebo for 56 weeks, Medical Daily reported. In addition, a 12-week "off-drug" follow-up period was included to assess treatment-cessation effects, making the total study length 68 weeks.
They found that those who received the higher dose of liraglutide had the most weight loss.
"This is the first study specifically designed to investigate the efficacy of liraglutide for weight management in patients with type 2 diabetes at a dose of 3 mg, and not surprisingly was found to be effective and tolerated for weight loss," Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, told HealthDay.
Zonszein was not involved in the study.
The findings are detailed in JAMA.
