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MONTREAL, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, at the Canadian Diabetes Association Congress, physicians will get a first-time look at more detailed results from a phase 3b clinical study (LEAD(TM) 6) comparing the investigational new drug liraglutide to exenatide. The study showed that liraglutide, a human GLP-1 analog administered once daily was significantly more effective at improving blood glucose control (as measured by HbA1c) than exenatide, a GLP-1 mimetic administered twice daily.
"In this study, reduction in blood glucose was greater with liraglutide than with exenatide," said Lawrence Blonde, MD, Director of the Ochsner Diabetes Clinical Research Unit in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at the Oxford Center in New Orleans. "Patients treated with once-daily liraglutide achieved better blood glucose control and also had less minor hypoglycemia than those treated with exenatide."
Fasting plasma glucose was also reduced significantly more with liraglutide compared to exenatide. Furthermore, liraglutide was also associated with higher HOMA-B values, an assessment of beta-cell function.
The 26-week study included 464 people with type 2 diabetes who were randomized to treatment with either liraglutide 1.8 mg once daily or exenatide 10 micrograms twice daily, both as an add-on to their existing treatment consisting of metformin and/or a sulphonylurea.
The overall rate of hypoglycemia in the study was low. Liraglutide patients experienced significantly less minor hypoglycemia compared to those on exenatide.
Nausea was the most common side effect for both treatments and was
reported at a level of 25.5% in the liraglutide group and 28% in exenatide
group (percent of all study participants reporting nausea at least once).
However, in the liraglutide group, the percentage of patients reporting
nausea in each week fell to 8% after 5 weeks, 4% after 10 weeks and 3%
after 26 weeks. In the exenatide gr
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