Novo Nordisk debuts new diabetes drug Xultophy in UK

Danish diabetes care giant Novo Nordisk (NOV: N) said today that Xultophy(insulin degludec/liraglutide; IDegLira), the first ever treatment combining two existing treatments, long acting (basal) insulin (insulin degludec, Tresiba)and GLP-1 receptor agonist (liraglutide, Victoza)in one pen, has been launched in the UK.

Xultophy saw its first launch earlier this year in Switzerland (The Pharma Letter January 19). Novo Nordisk's fixed-dose combination (FDC) is set to become the clinical gold-standard among FDCs used to treat patients with type 2 diabetes, according to market research firm decision Resources, due to the combined actions of the highly efficacious individual components on various measures of glycemic control.

Xultophyis indicated for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus to improve glycemic control in combination with oral glucose-lowering medicinal products when these alone or combined with basal insulin do not provide adequate glycemic control.Adults with type 2 diabetes taking once-daily Xultophy had a significant improvement in blood sugar (measured by HbA1c).4 Additionally, Xultophywas shown to have a secondary benefit of weight loss and a low rate of hypoglycaemia (very low blood sugar), comparable to Tresiba.