Effectiveness of a Pragmatic Pathway for Prescribing Liraglutide 3mg in Obesity Services (STRIVE)

This Medfyle was published more than two years ago. More recent Medfyle on this topic may now be available.

Key messages

• This study investigated if a targeted prescribing pathway for liraglutide 3 mg with multiple prespecified stopping rules could help people with severe obesity and established complications achieve ≥15% weight loss (WL) and to determine whether this could be considered a clinically effective and cost-effective strategy for managing severe and complex obesity in specialist weight management services (SWMS).
• This was a 2-year, multicenter, open label, real-world controlled trial in which 392 adults with severe and complex obesity (BMI ≥35 kg/m² plus either prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, hypertension or sleep apnea) were randomized via a 2:1 ratio to standard SWMS care (control arm, n=132) or standard SWMS care plus a targeted prescribing pathway for liraglutide 3 mg (intervention arm, n=260) with prespecified stopping rules at 16 (≥5% WL), 32 (≥10% WL) and 52 weeks (≥15% WL).
• A targeted prescribing pathway for liraglutide 3 mg resulted in more people achieving ≥15% WL compared to standard care alone at 52 weeks (25.4% vs. 6.5%).
• 54.8% of responders to the targeted prescribing pathway were able to maintain ≥10% WL at 104 weeks.
• The results of the study provide strong evidence on the clinical effectiveness of the suggested targeted prescribing pathway for use of liraglutide 3 mg in SWMS, with clinically significant WL at 52 and 104 weeks compared to standard care.