Weekly Dulaglutide Performs Well in Comparison to Daily Liraglutide

A comparison of the effects on A1c between users of once-weekly dulaglutide (made by Eli Lilly and Company) and once-daily liraglutide (sold as Victoza from Novo Nordisk) shows that both drugs have very similar effects.

Researchers at Ohio State University conducted a nine-country study of 599 type 2 patients, aged 18 years and older, with A1c’s between 7% and 10%, and taking at least 1,500 mg of metformin daily. The patients were split into two groups, with 299 receiving dulaglutide and 300 receiving liraglutide.

After 30 weeks, the mean reduction in A1c was -1.4% in the dulaglutide group versus -1.36% in the liraglutide group—a statistically insignificant difference. Other differences between the two groups were also statistically negligible: 20 percent of the dulaglutide group experienced nausea, compared with 18 percent in the liraglutide group; 12 percent of participants in both groups reported diarrhea, and 7 percent of the dulaglutide patients experienced vomiting versus 6 percent in the liraglutide group. Six percent of the participants in both groups dropped out of the study along the way due to drugs’ side effects.

None of the patients experienced severe hypoglycemia. For dulaglutide patients, the rate of hypoglycemic episodes per year was 0.34 and for liraglutide patients, 0.52.