Efficacy and safety comparison of add-on therapy with liraglutide, saxagliptin and vildagliptin, all in combination with current conventional oral hypoglycemic agents therapy in poorly controlled Chinese type 2 diabetes.

To compare the efficacy and safety of adding liraglutide, saxagliptin and vildagliptin to current therapy in Chinese type 2 diabetes subjects with poor glycemic control. A 24-week, randomized, open-label, parallel clinical trial was performed. A total 178 patients completed the trial who had been randomly assigned to add-on once daily liraglutide (1.2 mg/day injected subcutaneously), to saxagliptin (5 mg once daily) or to vildagliptin (50 mg twice daily). Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values, fasting and postprandial blood glucose (FBG and P2BG), body weight, body mass index (BMI), episodes of hypoglycemia and adverse events were evaluated. Over the 24-week treatment period, greater lowering of mean of HbA1c was achieved with 1.2 mg liraglutide (−1.50%, 95% CI [−1.67, −1.34]) than with saxagliptin (−1.23%, 95% CI [−1.36, −1.11]) and vildagliptin (−1.25%, 95% CI [−1.37, −1.13]). There was no significant between-group difference of percentages of subjects who reached a target HbA1c 2 ) were achieved than with saxagliptin and vildagliptin (both p Adding liraglutide demonstrated superiority to saxagliptin and vildagliptin for reductions of HbA1c and weight loss in Chinese subjects with T2DM who had inadequate glycemic control with conventional oral hypoglycemic agents. These findings support the add-on of liraglutide could offer notable advantages over DPP-4 inhibitors in both efficacy and safety.