The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the injectable medicine Victoza (generic name liraglutide) for children 10 years old and up with type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is the most prevalent form of the condition, characterized by insufficient insulin release by the pancreas and inefficient use of insulin by the body’s cells. It is becoming increasingly common in children, with new cases in youth expected to quadruple in the next 40 years.
Approved since 2010 for adults with type 2, Victoza becomes the only medicine other than insulin and metformin approved for use in children with the condition. A member of the class of medicines known as GLP-1 inhibitors, it works by increasing feelings of fullness, slowing stomach emptying, increasing the release of insulin, and decreasing the release of glucagon (a hormone that raises blood glucose).
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“The FDA encourages drugs to be made available to the widest number of patients possible when there is evidence of safety and efficacy,” stated Lisa Yanoff, MD, acting director of the Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Victoza has now been shown to improve blood sugar control in pediatric patients with type 2 diabetes. The expanded indication provides an additional treatment option at a time when an increasing number of children are being diagnosed with this disease.”
Want to learn more about type 2 diabetes in children? Read “Recognizing Type 2 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents” and “Children and Type 2 Diabetes: What’s New?”
