Skip to the questions Liraglutide Care question book Some answers. Room for your questions. In this question book Medicine & care Name the medicine Check the care Prepare for a visit Know the cautions Paying for care Work through the bill Medicine & care A liraglutide clinic name is not a care plan. This is a care guide, with questions to take to a visit. Appointments and medicines are not offered here. What would help you feel ready to ask? Get the medicine’s name clear, check who offers care, then leave room for what is still unclear. Read Ask Note Open the medicine checklist Which medicine is being offered? Your gut sends a hormone, or chemical message, that helps manage blood sugar and hunger. Liraglutide acts like that message. The medicine’s official instructions describe a shot given once a day. Read beside this answer Liraglutide (Saxenda) label at DailyMed Does the name tell me its approved use? For liraglutide (Victoza), US approval covers type 2 diabetes as of September 2026; it does not cover weight loss. That diabetes use helps control blood sugar. Read beside this answer Victoza’s label at DailyMed Liraglutide (Saxenda) has US approval for long-term weight care, checked September 2026. For adults, that covers obesity, or excess weight with a weight-related health problem. Its approved use includes a lower-calorie diet and more physical activity. Read beside this answer Saxenda’s approved uses Is it a brand, a copy or made to order? A generic is a ready-made version of a brand drug with the same medicine ingredient. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists approved generic versions of Victoza and Saxenda in its September 2026 records. Victoza and its generics cannot replace Saxenda or its generics at the pharmacy, or the other way round, in the September 2026 FDA records. Read beside this answer FDA’s medicine approval records Compounding means mixing a medicine for a person whose needs a ready-made drug cannot meet. A doctor or pharmacist makes it to order. For instance, a patient allergic to a colouring might need that dye left out of the medicine. A medicine mixed to order has no FDA approval, under the rules checked September 2026. Before these medicines are offered, FDA has not checked whether they work, their quality or their safety. Read beside this answer FDA’s compounding questions Can I name what I am comparing? I have the exact product name, not just “liraglutide”. I know whether the offer is a brand, a generic or a medicine mixed to order. I have asked why that particular product is being discussed. What name or term do I want explained? What did the weight-loss study find? SCALE followed adults who did not have diabetes for 56 weeks. With liraglutide, the average weight lost was 8.4 kilograms, which is about 18.5 pounds. With the dummy shot, the average was 2.8 kilograms, or about 6.2 pounds. A dummy injection is the comparison treatment, called a placebo. Those group averages cannot predict an individual result. Read beside this answer SCALE study in the medical journal Who would be responsible for my care? Would you prefer to talk in a room or from home? Before comparing offers, ask who would treat you and whether that person is a doctor, nurse or another health professional. Telehealth care reaches you by video link, a call on the phone or an online exchange while the person treating you is elsewhere. For online visits, US guidance checked September 2026 says a doctor generally needs permission from the state you will be in. State rules differ and may allow some visits under special exceptions, according to US guidance checked September 2026. Read beside this answer US guidance on online care licences Ask: “Can you treat me in the state where I will be, even if you are in another state? If you rely on an exception, which rule allows it?” A state medical board, the group that licenses doctors, lets you check a doctor’s licence and public action against them for breaking its rules. The medical boards’ national group has a list of links to the state boards. Read beside this answer Find the relevant medical board Pharmacies have a separate licence record held by a state board of pharmacy. FDA provides links to those state searches. Read beside this answer Look up the pharmacy through FDA What can I check before a visit? I have asked for the treating person’s full name and where to check their licence. I have asked about care in the state where I will be. I have asked which pharmacy would fill a prescription. I know whom I could contact after the visit. What can I take into the conversation? A short question is enough. Medical words can wait; ask for the meaning as each one comes up. Before Write down what you hope to discuss. Ask what records to bring and whether anything needs to happen before the visit. During Ask why this option fits the discussion, what other options exist and what would happen if you chose no medicine. After Ask how progress would be reviewed, which questions can wait and how to get an answer between visits. Saxenda’s instructions tell the person prescribing it to check your pulse and, if you have type 2 diabetes, your blood sugar. They also call for checks on how well your kidneys work after bad vomiting or diarrhoea causes loss of body fluid. The instructions also ask about pregnancy plans and a history of thyroid cancer. Read beside this answer What the Saxenda instructions ask about Ask what those checks would involve and who would arrange them. The question I do not want to forget What would make me pause? US law, checked September 2026, forbids dispensing prescription medicines when there is no valid prescription. Read beside this answer The US prescription requirement FDA can register a business or list a drug without approving that medicine, under the rule checked September 2026. Watch for “FDA registered” in an offer; ask which exact medicine is being offered. Read beside this answer The registration and approval rule Which problems belong in the discussion? Saxenda’s label lists feeling sick, vomiting, loose stools and constipation among common side effects. Its boxed warning, the strongest FDA label alert, describes thyroid tumours in rats and mice. Whether this happens in people is not known. A personal history of medullary thyroid cancer, or that history in the family, rules out use under the label. That is a type of thyroid cancer. MEN 2 is a rare illness passed through families that can cause tumours in glands, the parts of the body that make hormones. The long medical name for MEN 2 is multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2. Saxenda’s instructions rule out use if you have MEN 2 or have had a serious allergy to liraglutide or any ingredient in it. Read beside this answer Saxenda’s cautions and boxed alert For a severe allergic reaction with breathing trouble or a swollen tongue, MedlinePlus directs readers to emergency help. Read beside this answer MedlinePlus on severe allergy What do I want the person treating me to explain about these cautions? What would the whole bill include? Keep the money questions beside the medicine questions. A written answer is easier to compare later. Work through the cost sheet Keep this guide beside your questions; it provides neither clinic care nor medicines. Back to this page’s questions