Liraglutide — reference

Liraglutide: glp-1 receptor agonist, approximate mass 3751.2 Da, 13 h half-life. Identity, evidence base, analytical considerations and limitations.

Scope

A maintained identity and evidence reference for Liraglutide. It is deliberately narrow: what the molecule is, what has been published about it, and what an analytical report on it can and cannot establish. It contains no dosing recommendations and is not advice about anyone's care.

Where a figure is approximate this page says so. Where something is unknown, it says that instead of filling the gap.

Identity

Masses quoted here are approximate and are given for orientation when reading an analytical report. For a mass-error calculation, use the exact monoisotopic mass computed from the elemental composition rather than a rounded figure from a reference page, including this one.

What it is

Liraglutide is the older comparator against which much of the newer evidence is measured. A C16 fatty acid side chain gives it a half-life long enough for daily dosing but not weekly.

LEADER established cardiovascular benefit for a GLP-1 receptor agonist in type 2 diabetes and is the historical anchor for the outcome-trial literature in this class.

Evidence base

Published studies and programmes most relevant to this compound:

• LEADER
• SCALE
• STEP 8

STEP 8 compared semaglutide 2.4 mg weekly with liraglutide 3.0 mg daily and is the cleanest direct comparison between a weekly and a daily agent in obesity.

The daily schedule matters practically: adherence in real use is consistently worse than in trials, and a daily injectable is harder to sustain than a weekly one.

Individual digests for several of these are maintained separately in this commons and are linked from the evidence category. A digest is a summary with its criticisms attached; it is not a substitute for reading the paper.

Analytical considerations

Reversed-phase HPLC with ultraviolet detection at 214 nm is the usual purity method, and electrospray mass spectrometry the usual identity method. A purity figure is an area percentage at a stated wavelength under a stated gradient, and it is not interchangeable with a content determination.

Three things a purity assay on this compound will not tell you: how much peptide is in the container (that requires a content assay), what the counter-ion is (that requires ion chromatography or NMR), and whether anything is present that does not elute under the method used.

See Reversed-phase HPLC for peptides and LC-MS identity confirmation for the method detail.

Status and legality

Licensed for type 2 diabetes and, at higher dose, for weight management.

Material sold as research-use-only is not a licensed medicine, whatever it contains and however good its certificate is. That is a statement about regulatory status rather than about quality, and it is true of high-purity material as much as of poor material.

Limitations of this page

This is a reference page maintained by volunteers, reviewed on the date shown, and it will be out of date at some point after that date. It summarises published work rather than reproducing it, and a summary always loses something. Where the summary and the source disagree, the source is right.

If you find an error, the fastest route to fixing it is a topic in doc review naming the sentence and the source. The maintainers named above are notified.