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The world’s leading diabetes care company Novo Nordisk will launch an anti-obesity drug, Saxenda in India after necessary approvals.
Melvin Oscar D’Souza, Corporate Vice-President and General Manager, Novo Nordisk India, told BusinessLine that the drug has already been introduced in the US.
He said in the anti-obesity space, there were not many drugs and those which are available have side-effects. Patients with high blood sugar can also take this drug, he said.
D’Souza said there has been a significant progress in the field of diabetic treatment. Risk of cardiovascular disease and hypoglycaemia are important concerns for those with type 2 diabetes and the results from DEVOTE trials (presented by Novo Nordisk at the recently concluded 77th chapter of ADA) add to the mounting evidence that will play an important role in treatment decisions.
The primary trial results demonstrate that the use of Ínsulin Degludec (sold by Novo Nordisk under the brand name Tresiba) causes no increase in the risk of major cardiovascular events. Tresiba is a once-daily basal insulin that is effective beyond 42 hours and has a stable glucose-lowering effect without any cardiovascular risk. Results from the trial, involving 7,637 people with type 2 diabetes followed for approximately two years, are published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine .
Results from the secondary endpoints of the trial showed a significant reduction in the rate of severe hypoglycaemia with Tresiba vs an insulin glargine. On occasions when administration at the same time of day is not possible, Tresiba allows for flexibility in day-to-day dosing time with a minimum of eight hours between injections.
The product received its first regulatory approval in September 2012 and has since been approved in more than 80 countries and is now commercially available in more than 50 countries.
Currently, the company is also working to harness the power of GLP (naturally available protein in the body) and provide solutions to diabetes in oral form.
The testing of this innovative drug is in phase III in India.
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