The EMA recently recommended granting marketing authorisation for Saxenda (liraglutide) for weight management in obese adults or overweight people who have one or more weight-related complication(s), such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol or obstructive sleep apnoea. Saxenda is added to a reduced-calorie diet and physical activity.

Treatment should stop if patients have not lost at least 5 per cent of their body weight after 12 weeks. The intended dose of liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, for weight management is 3mg injected once a day. Liraglutide is currently approved for type 2 diabetes at doses of up to 1.8mg daily. GLP-1-based therapies may increase heart rate as well as being linked, in a small number of reports, to acute pancreatitis, gallstones and gallbladder inflammation. Saxenda’s risk management plan will closely monitor these concerns.