New diabetes drug doesn't increase weight

Insulin, Glucotrol, and drugs like Avandia and Actos are all effective treatments for diabetes, but they can produce weight gain. In contrast, an experimental drug called liraglutide seems to control sugar levels without this frustrating side effect, Dutch researchers report.

As reported in the journal Diabetes Care, Dr. Arne Astrup, from The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Frederiksberg, and colleagues studied the effects of liraglutide in 33 patients with type 2 diabetes. The patients were randomly assigned to receive a daily infection of liraglutide or inactive "placebo" for 8 weeks.

Compared with placebo, liraglutide improved blood sugar control without inducing weight gain. In fact, patients treated with the drug were slightly more likely to experience a drop in total body fat.

This suggests to the team that, at higher doses and for longer periods of time, "liraglutide actually may have the potential to induce weight loss." A significant drop in body weight was observed in a liraglutide trial reported in June.

Liraglutide had no effect on appetite or food intake. Adverse effects were "mainly mild and related to the gastrointestinal system," the team also reports, and there were no episodes of abnormally low sugar levels during the trial.

Astrup and colleagues call for further studies to better understand "the weight profile of liraglutide."

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, August 2004.