Liraglutide beats older diabetes drug in study

With a blockbuster diabetes franchise hanging in the balance, Novo Nordisk touted new data over the weekend that shows its experimental therapy liraglutide bested a standard therapy after two years of dosing.

The controversial drug, which is awaiting a final regulatory decision in the U.S. and Europe, demonstrated an ability to control target blood sugar levels for 58 percent of the patients in the study, compared to 37 percent of patients taking glimepiride. A1C levels slid an average of 1.1 percent in the liraglutide group compared to 0.6 percent for the arm taking the older therapy. The data was unveiled at the American Diabetes Association's annual scientific meeting.

"People overall lose weight with liraglutide. That's a significant value-added benefit to this class of drugs," Dr. Alan Garber from the Baylor College of Medicine told Reuters.

Liraglutide has been recommended by experts in Europe, but a U.S. FDA panel split their votes after reviewing data on thyroid tumors found in rats treated with the drug. Analysts say that an approval could pave the way to billions of dollars in annual sales.

- read the report from Reuters

ALSO: After studying Phase II data for GlaxoSmithKline's Syncria, a number of analysts say the key diabetes drug is looking more and more like a 'me-too' drug. And that is not what Glaxo wants to see. Report

PLUS: Roche announced this morning that it will move its experimental diabetes drug aleglitazar into a pivotal Phase III study after gathering positive mid-stage data. Report

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