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Liraglutide is a medicine given as an injection under the skin once a day. Like semaglutide, it copies the natural gut hormone GLP-1, which tells the brain you have had enough to eat, so hunger and food cravings go down. In the EU it is sold as Saxenda and used together with a reduced-calorie diet and more physical activity.
Active ingredient liraglutide  ·  Dosages 0.6–3 mg/day  ·  Authorised in the EU since 23 March 2015

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What it is

Liraglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist given as a daily subcutaneous injection. It was one of the first in its class approved in Europe for weight management in adults with obesity, or overweight with a weight-related comorbidity. Compared with weekly GLP-1s, its daily dosing can be useful when flexibility of adjustment matters, or when a semaglutide hasn’t been tolerated. The doctor weighs this up in your consultation — two GLP-1 agonists are never combined.

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How it works

Like other GLP-1 analogues, liraglutide mimics a natural gut hormone: it increases the feeling of fullness and reduces hunger and food cravings. Being shorter-acting than weekly GLP-1s, its dose is adjusted day by day.
It copies the gut hormone GLP-1. Liraglutide activates GLP-1 receptors in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus and area postrema, signalling satiety and reducing hunger, and in the gastrointestinal tract, where it delays gastric emptying by inhibiting antral contraction.

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A gradual, week-by-week build-up

1

Week 1

0.6 mg daily starting dose.
2

Following weeks

Step up through 1.2, 1.8 and 2.4 mg as tolerated.
3

Maintenance

3 mg daily when appropriate.
4

Ongoing

Follow-up through your account chat.

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What the studies reported

Results come from the SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes trial (NCT01272219), published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 2015;373(1):11-22, and the EMA public assessment report for Saxenda (EMA/143005/2015). Across 5 main studies involving over 5,800 adults with obesity or overweight, pooled analysis of the EMA weight-management trial pool showed that liraglutide 3.0 mg led to a mean 7.5% reduction in body weight versus 2.3% on placebo, with continuous weight loss over the first 40 weeks followed by maintenance; weight loss was more pronounced in women than in men (source: EMA EPAR Saxenda, EMEA/H/C/003780). When re-analysed with the conservative assumption that patients who did not complete the study (approximately 30%) would not have seen any improvement, the weight reductions were similar but smaller. The SCALE trial randomised 3,731 adults with a BMI of 30 or more (or 27 or more with a treated or untreated comorbidity) in a 2:1 ratio to liraglutide 3.0 mg or placebo for 56 weeks, with a 12-week off-drug follow-up. The coprimary endpoints were the proportions of patients losing ≥5% body weight and ≥10% body weight. Analysis was intention-to-treat with the last observation carried forward. The trial excluded people with type 2 diabetes (because the focus was weight, not glycaemia), and everyone received a reduced-calorie diet and lifestyle counselling, so the drug effect cannot be separated from the behavioural intervention. The 56-week primary analysis does not address long-term maintenance beyond one year.
Everyone in the trial also received lifestyle counselling, people with type 2 diabetes were excluded, and the primary result covers 56 weeks only.

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What has been reported

Gallstone problems. Acute gallstone events were reported by 2.3% on liraglutide 3.0 mg versus 0.9% on placebo across the EMA weight-management trial pool, mainly gallstones themselves (1.5% versus 0.5%). Acute pancreatitis. Independently confirmed in 7 people (0.2%) on liraglutide 3.0 mg versus 1 person (under 0.1%) on placebo across the same EMA trial pool.
Nausea and diarrhoea are very common; severe stomach pain can signal pancreatitis and should not be ignored.

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Who it is for

Adults with a BMI of 30 or more, or 27 or more plus a weight-related illness — the doctor confirms eligibility from your questionnaire.

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Who it is not suitable for

  • Anyone with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) or Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2 (MEN 2). GLP-1 receptors are expressed on thyroid C-cells, and experimental data show that GLP-1 receptor agonism can promote C-cell proliferation — the clinical relevance in humans remains under surveillance, but the EMA and FDA list this as a contraindication. The EMA post-authorisation safety study for Saxenda (NN2211-8841, EMA catalogue ref 1000001037) continues to monitor this risk through database linkage.
  • People with a known hypersensitivity to liraglutide or any excipient in Saxenda.
  • People with severe renal impairment (creatinine clearance below 30 mL/min) — there is very limited experience in this population, and liraglutide has not been studied in patients with end-stage renal disease.
The prescribing doctor screens for personal or family history of MTC or MEN 2 before prescribing.

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How Hi-Doctor handles it

An EU-licensed doctor reviews your case and, if eligible, issues an electronic prescription valid at any EU pharmacy under Directive 2011/24/EU. See pricing for the consultation fee; the medicine itself is paid separately at a pharmacy. For the eligibility checks that apply, see safety, and for another GLP-1 option see semaglutide.

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Start a consultation

Weight-loss consultation

Answer the weight-loss questionnaire and a registered doctor reviews it. They decide whether treatment is appropriate, which one, and at what dose — and declining is a normal outcome. See what it costs and how the review works.
This page is reference information, not medical advice and not a prescription. Whether a medicine is appropriate for you is decided by a registered doctor after reviewing your consultation.