Liraglutide in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Liraglutide (victoza, Novo Nordisk A/S) is human GLP-1 analogue developed by recombinant DNA technology. It is indicated along with diet and exercise in management of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in adults. Liraglutide has been made available in India recently. Present review evaluates the efficacy and safety of liraglutide in T2DM and its comparison with other incretin based therapies. Liraglutide has been evaluated as monotherapy, in combination with one, two and three oral antidiabetic drugs similarly to routine clinical practice. These studies reported greater improvement in glycaemic control with liraglutide compared with comparators. Evaluation up to 2 years revealed sustained improvement in glycaemic control with liraglutide use. Liraglutide was well tolerated except for mild to moderate gastro-intestinal adverse events, which declined after continuation of therapy. Low risk of hypoglycaemia was reported with liraglutide therapy. Greater efficacy than other incretin based therapies was noted with liraglutide. Liraglutide has an important place in the management of T2DM. Apart from glycaemic control it also provides some important non-glycaemic benefits in terms of improving beta-cell function, weight reduction, and reduction in systolic blood pressure thereby overcoming the present therapeutic gap.