Novo Nordisk plans to reformulate their diabetes drug to help people who want to reduce weight.
Liraglutide, marketed under the brand name Victoza, is a drug developed by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Approved by the European Medicines Agency and the FDA, the drug is administered via injection, acting on receptors in the pancreas to stimulate insulin production. Although liraglutide is known for its effectiveness in treating diabetes, the drug is also said to help reduce the weight of obese people.
Recently, Novo Nordisk has announced its plan to reformulate their diabetes drug as a weight loss drug for obese people by 2015. Based on clinical trials on non-diabetic obese people, the drug has proven to help them lose weight by up to 8 percent.
3,731 obese people without diabetes participated in the study. At first, 61 percent of the participants taking the said drug were pre-diabetic and have a high risk of developing diabetes. By the end of the 56-week trial, 69 percent of the pre-diabetic patients were no longer considered high risk.
Pharmaceutical industry analysts have differing takes on the drug's future as a weight reducer-some believe that liraglutide would never be approved to counter obesity, whereas some others believe that Novo Nordisk could substantially enlarge their customer base and profits once the drug hits the market.
Although the price of the medication is not cheap at $25 a day, as compared to similar drugs manufactured by other pharmaceutical companies, such as lorcaserin by Arena Pharmaceuticals and phentermine and topiramate extended release by Vivus, Mads Thomsen, chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk, believes that patients would be willing to pay for liraglutide despite its higher price because of its effectiveness.
