*MEDICATION*: Liraglutide used for Diabetes

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User requirements

This codelist aims to identify the prescribing of liraglutide products which are licenced for the treatment of diabetes.

Coding system

dm+d

Search terms / synonyms / search strategy

Liraglutide AMPs under dm+d category Liraglutide (VTM) 776548002 and Insulin degludec + Liraglutide (VTM) 776341007 were reviewed and considered for inclusion.

Licencing information was interpreted from the relevant Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC):

Obesity

• Biolide 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled pens
• Nevolat 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled pens
• Plaobes 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled pens
• Saxenda 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled pens

Diabetes

• Diavic 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled pens
• Victoza 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled pens (now discontinued so no SPC available, but was exclusively licenced for diabetes)
• Zegluxen 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled pens
• Xultophy 100 units/mL + 3.6 mg/mL solution for injection

Where SPCs were not available, products were excluded from the codelist since it was not possible to determine details of their licence. I searched the English Prescribing Dataset API for the SNOMED CT codes attached to these products to get a sense of the likely impact on the codelist. Examples of cases that could not be linked to an SPC are listed below:

• Liraglutide dispensing which was recorded at VMP level under Liraglutide 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled disposable devices (VMP) 15859111000001102. This was a substantial proportion (approx 44%) of dispensed liraglutide in December 2025.
• Liraglutide AMPs which are described as generics with the manufacturer specified., e.g. Liraglutide 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled disposable devices (Biocon Pharma UK Ltd) (AMP) 44078311000001101. This was a small proportion (approx 6%) of dispensed liraglutide.

Since these cases are excluded, this codelist cannot detect all liraglutide prescribing for diabetes and will have low sensitivity.

There were some additional AMPs described generically (with a specific manufacturer) for which it was not possible to understand the licenced indication, but which had zero recorded prescribing. For example:

• Liraglutide 6mg/ml solution for injection 3ml pre-filled disposable devices (Alliance Healthcare (Distribution) Ltd) (AMP) 45394511000001103
  There were also excluded, but since these codes have zero prescriptions dispensed a decision to either include or exclude these codes will not have any impact currently.

Inclusion criteria for codes

Codes which:

• refer to a product that contains liraglutide and,
• where the product is licensed exclusively for the treatment of diabetes.

Exclusion criteria for codes

Codes which:

• do not refer to a product that contains liraglutide or,
• where the product is not licensed exclusively for the treatment of diabetes.

Borderline cases

None identified.

Final codelist

https://www.opencodelists.org/codelist/opensafely/liraglutide-for-diabetes/75a9bbd4/

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Draft codelist for review: https://www.opencodelists.org/codelist/opensafely/liraglutide-for-diabetes/75a9bbd4/

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This codelist is an accurate representation of the specified criteria, though it is expected to have low sensitivity and will not capture all relevant prescribing