India Pharma Outlook Team | Wednesday, 03 January 2024
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Glenmark), a worldwide pharmaceutical business focused on research, has introduced a biosimilar of the popular anti-diabetic medicine liraglutide in India for the first time. Following permission from the medicine Controller General of India (DCGI), the medicine is being marketed under the brand name Lirafit. Priced around Rs. 100 for a normal dose of mg (per day), this will reduce therapy costs by around 70% and will be available exclusively by prescription.
Liraglutide belongs to the class of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) drugs, which increase glucose-dependent insulin secretion and decrease in appropriate glucagon secretion. It has been approved globally for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus in adult patients in the United States and the European Union, as per pharmabiz. “Glenmark is proud to introduce Lirafit, a novel and affordable biosimilar of the drug liraglutide, for the first time in India. Clinical trials have shown that it helps improve glycaemic control in adult type 2 diabetes mellitus patients along with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD) and obesity. Liraglutide has also proven to have a positive impact on cardiac and renal safety outcomes among patients in clinical trials, making it an effective choice of treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. With this launch, we have now ventured into the injectable anti-diabetic market taking another significant stride in the diabetes therapy space,” remarked Alok Malik, president and business head - India formulations, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Liraglutide has been shown to improve glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Lirafit was found to be efficacious, safe, and well-tolerated in 24-week clinical trials on Indian adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The trials also demonstrated that it had non-inferior effectiveness and a similar safety profile to the reference liraglutide.
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