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A new drug has been found to be “significantly” more effective at improving glycaemic control in patients with diabetes than an existing treatment.
Patients given a daily dose of liraglutide, a human GLP-1 analogue, achieved better blood glucose control than those treated with exenatide, a GLP-1 mimetic administered twice daily.
Lead researcher Lawrence Blonde, director of the Ochsner Diabetes Clinical Research Unit in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Oxford Centre in New Orleans, US, said: “In this study reduction in glycaemia was greater with liraglutide than with exenatide.
“Patients treated with once-daily liraglutide achieved better blood glucose control and also had less minor hypoglycaemia than those treated with exenatide.”
Fasting plasma glucose was also reduced significantly more with liraglutide compared with exenatide, and liraglutide was associated with higher HOMA-B values, an assessment of beta-cell function.
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 the exenatide group.
Other common gastrointestinal-related adverse events with liraglutide were diarrhoea, vomiting and dyspepsia.
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