Victoza Liraglutide 1 Pen 6 mg/1 ml

Novo Nordisk's Victoza is an injectable treatment for type 2 diabetes that can be administered once a day and stimulates the body's production of insulin. In addition to lowering blood sugar levels, studies have shown that Victoza may accelerate weight loss and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack, stroke, and related death.

Victoza is not an insulin preparation. It is 97 percent similar to a substance in the body called GLP-1, a hormone that affects the liver, pancreas, and intestines and helps control glucose levels, insulin, and stomach emptying.

Effects of taking Victoza

The main advantages of liraglutide over the main hypoglycemic drugs:

1. glucose-dependent insulin secretion, i.e. the drug acts only when the blood glucose concentration increases above normal, thereby preventing “overregulation” by liraglutide. Consequently, the risk of hypoglycemic conditions is reduced;
2. In animal studies, the drug showed good results in inhibiting apoptosis and stimulating the regeneration of pancreatic beta cells;
3. reduces appetite and inhibits weight gain;
4. reduces the level of triglycerides in the blood.

Medical indications for taking Victoza

Controlling your blood glucose levels can help prevent diabetes complications such as heart disease. Patients taking Victoza had favorable results in terms of A1C, a measure of glucose concentration, over two to three months. Victoza helped lower blood sugar levels in just two weeks. A two-year study found that levels remained low.

Application and dosage of Victoza

Victoza is available as an injection syringe. Patients take Victoza once daily by injecting a prescribed pen into the thigh, upper arm or abdomen. Victoza can be taken at any time of the day and does not need to be taken with food. The manufacturer recommends establishing a habit so that patients remember to administer the drug at the same time every day. Clinicians should instruct patients on how to use the Victoza pen. Pre-packaged 6 mg/ml pens can last for 30 days depending on the daily dosage (0.6 mg, 1.2 mg or 1.8 mg); however, unused medication should not be taken more than 30 days after the first use of the pen.

If patients take Victoza along with insulin, they should administer each drug separately and never mix the two solutions.

Side effects

In clinical studies of side effects associated with Victoza, Novo Nordisk collected data from 1,673 adult patients across five clinical studies. The average age of study participants was 58 years, and the majority of participants were white men. Study participants took Victoza for about 37 weeks. The most common side effects occurred in 5 percent or more of the study participants. The occurrence of side effects increased with the use of the maximum dose of the drug.

Common side effects include:

• nausea;
• diarrhea;
• headache;
• nasopharyngitis (cold);
• vomit;
• decreased appetite;
• dyspepsia (digestive disorder);
• upper respiratory tract infection;
• constipation;
• backache.

Gastrointestinal problems, injection site reactions, and hypoglycemia also occurred in less than 5 percent of patients.

Novo Nordisk has found that Victoza causes thyroid tumors in rats and mice. Because the drug is fairly new and thyroid cancer is rare in humans, the FDA said it is difficult to say whether the drug can cause thyroid cancer in people. Several cases of thyroid cancer have been reported in Victoza users, but it is unclear whether these cases were caused by Victoza.

However, Victoza carries a warning about the risk of developing C-cell tumors of the thyroid, including medullary thyroid carcinoma.

What to Avoid

The drug's labeling and FDA warn that people with a personal or family history of thyroid cancer or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2 should not take Victoza.

Victoza should be used with caution in patients if they:

• Use insulin or insulin secretagogues such as sulfonylureas because there is a risk of low blood sugar. Before you start taking Victoza, you may need to reduce the dose of the medicine.
• Have impaired renal function, as there is a risk of deterioration of renal function.
• Caution should be exercised when starting treatment with Victoza or increasing the dose.

Additional warnings when using Victoza include the risk of:

• Acute gallbladder disease requires hospitalization and removal of the gallbladder.
• Hypersensitivity reactions, including anaphylaxis.
• Pancreatitis

Package leaflet: Information for the user (pdf).