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Liraglutide
Yes, it works and yes it's approved — as Victoza (2010, for type 2 diabetes) and Saxenda (2014, for chronic weight management). It's the GLP-1 that came before Ozempic and Wegovy: a real, once-daily injectable with solid trial evidence behind it, and a smaller average weight-loss effect than the drugs that followed it — not a worse version, an earlier one.
On this page
In brief
Should you care? Yes, if you're comparing it to semaglutide or tirzepatide — it's a real, earlier-generation approved drug in the same class, not a knockoff.The short version
- Approved twice — as Victoza (2010, diabetes) and Saxenda (2014, weight management), the first GLP-1 approved specifically for weight loss.
- Real Phase 3 trial evidence backs the weight-management approval.
- Smaller average weight loss, and a daily rather than weekly injection, versus semaglutide or tirzepatide.
What it is
Liraglutide is a once-daily injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist developed by Novo Nordisk. FDA approved it first as Victoza (25 January 2010) for type 2 diabetes, then as Saxenda (23 December 2014) for chronic weight management — the first GLP-1 medicine approved specifically for weight loss, seven years before Wegovy.
The trial evidence
The pivotal trial behind the Saxenda approval is the SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes trial: 3,731 adults with obesity or overweight, 56 weeks, liraglutide 3.0mg versus placebo (Pi-Sunyer et al., N Engl J Med 2015;373:11-22, DOI 10.1056/NEJMoa1411892). That's real, large, peer-reviewed evidence — the same category the semaglutide and tirzepatide pages describe for their own approvals.
Where it sits next to semaglutide and tirzepatide
Average weight loss with liraglutide 3.0mg runs meaningfully lower than with semaglutide 2.4mg or tirzepatide, and the daily-injection schedule is a real adherence disadvantage against once-weekly competitors. Worth stating plainly: liraglutide, semaglutide and tirzepatide are not interchangeable, and liraglutide is the least potent of the three on the numbers reported in their respective trials.
Safety notes
Liraglutide carries the same boxed warning as semaglutide and tirzepatide for thyroid C-cell tumor risk seen in rodent studies, with the same contraindication for a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN2. Gastrointestinal side effects are the most common tolerability issue.
References
- Pi-Sunyer et al., "A Randomized, Controlled Trial of 3.0 mg of Liraglutide in Weight Management," N Engl J Med 2015;373:11-22, DOI 10.1056/NEJMoa1411892.
- FDA approval history: Victoza (25 January 2010), Saxenda (23 December 2014).