Novo Nordisk Pharma Korea announced Thursday that Saxenda (ingredient: liraglutide 3 milligrams) has retained the first place in the global obesity treatment rankings in 2019 by taking up a 56.3 percent market share.

Saxenda is the world's first and only glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist.

According to IQVIA, a drug survey agency, Saxenda recorded the sales of 1.09 trillion won ($844 million) in the global obesity treatment market of 1.9 trillion won last year. Saxenda is used in 48 countries, including the United States (70.6 percent of market share), Saudi Arabia (87 percent), Denmark (80 percent), and the United Arab Emirates (77 percent).

Novo Nordisk’s obesity treatment 'Saxenda' injection.

It began sales in Korea in 2018 and topped the market the following year.

Currently, America accounts for about 52.9 percent of the global obesity treatment market, and Saxenda has been leading the U.S. market for five years since it won approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2015.

"Saxenda has weight loss effect, long-term safety profile, and improved metabolic risk factors and other additional benefits," Novo Nordisk Pharma Korea's General Manager Rana Azfar Zafar said. "Novo Nordisk will continue to stress that obesity is a chronic disease that requires continuous treatment, and continue to ensure obese patients to receive professional treatment."

Saxenda has confirmed the weight loss effect and sustained it as well in a clinical study, Satiety and Clinical Adiposity – Liraglutide Evidence, with 5,358 patients in four parts. In particular, clinical studies conducted on 3,731 pre-obesity and diabetic patients showed that the weight of the Saxenda administration group continued to decrease, resulting in a 9.2 percent reduction after a year.

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