Novo-Nordisk has a third GLP-1 analog drug: Victoza (liraglutide), which is designed to be administered by injection once-daily. This drug has been reviewed by an FDA Advisory Committee, and safety concerns have held up FDA approval, although it's already been approved in Europe. Novo-Nordisk is also said to be running once-weekly trials with liraglutide, but I haven't found any published results, and they don't mention it in their pipeline at their corporate website. They do mention another name, semaglutide, which they describe as "a longer-acting human GLP-1 analogue intended for once-weekly administration." At ClinicalTrials.gov, there are several studies listed for NN9535, which is being evaluated for once-weekly administration, and which is described as a GLP-1 analog and according to other reports is semaglutide -- possibly semaglutide is their once-weekly formulation of liraglutide (or perhaps it's another molecule).
In addition to these three GLP-1 analogs, are there any other drugs being evaluated for once-weekly therapy of diabetes?
Once weekly dosing with long-lasting basal insulins such as Lantus (insulin glargine) might be possible. One mention of this concept is described at Complex Biosystems: "Once-weekly basal insulin is being developed at Complex on the hypothesis that a significant patient population within Type II diabetics would embrace such a medication ... Depot insulin, administered once a week in Type II, would catalyze earlier entry into insulin therapy and provide better overall glucose level control."
And other diabetes drugs, by the nature of how they work, might be amenable to once-weekly dosing. I thought I might be able to Google some information about trying metformin on a once-weekly basis, but I struck out.
Many other drugs for other medical conditions work on a once-weekly basis, and as one study mentioned above indicated, apparently patients prefer weekly dosing to daily or several times daily. Assuming Byetta LAR is approved by the FDA, and later, Roche's once-weekly drug, I suspect there will be a considerable push by drug manufacturers (and their marketing departments) to develop weekly versions of other diabetes drugs.
