Liraglutide is the daily GLP-1 drug that came before the weekly ones, and it is the one molecule in this family where the dose question has two correct answers printed by the same manufacturer. Novo Nordisk sells it as Victoza for type 2 diabetes and as Saxenda for weight management. The two labels start in the same place and end in different ones. This page reports both ladders exactly as the current FDA labels print them, with the rules around restarting and stopping and the arithmetic of the pen. It reports what the labels say; the dose for any particular person is a prescriber's decision. For the weekly GLP-1 drugs the same way, see our semaglutide dosage page and tirzepatide dosage page. How brands appear on this site is on our disclosure page.
The two ladders side by side
| Week | Victoza, adults (type 2 diabetes) | Saxenda, adults and adolescents 12+ (weight) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.6 mg daily | 0.6 mg daily |
| 2 | 1.2 mg daily | 1.2 mg daily |
| 3 | 1.2 mg, or 1.8 mg if more glucose control is needed | 1.8 mg daily |
| 4 | — | 2.4 mg daily |
| 5 onward | 1.8 mg is the maximum | 3 mg daily (maintenance) |
Sources: the Victoza label (Novo Nordisk version effective 2025-10-14) and the Saxenda label (effective 2026-02-25), both read through the openFDA label endpoint on 2026-09-27.
Two sentences in the labels explain the shape. Victoza's says the 0.6 mg starting dose "is intended to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal adverse reactions during initial titration and is not effective for glycemic control in adults." Saxenda's says that for adults "the recommended dosage of SAXENDA is 3 mg daily, lower dosages are for titration only." So the bottom rung of both ladders is a tolerability step, not a treatment dose, and the top rung is where the two uses diverge — 1.8 mg against 3 mg, a factor of 1.67 for the same molecule.
The children's rules differ again. Victoza's paediatric section (age 10 and over) starts at 0.6 mg and moves up in 0.6 mg steps "after at least one week on the current dosage" to the same 1.8 mg maximum. Saxenda's allows paediatric escalation to take up to eight weeks, allows a step back to the previous dose if an increase is not tolerated, and allows a maintenance dose of 2.4 mg for adolescents who do not tolerate 3 mg.
The rules around the number
Restarting. Both labels say the same thing about a gap: a single missed dose is not made up, and the daily schedule resumes with the next one; but "if more than 3 days have elapsed" since the last dose, liraglutide is restarted at 0.6 mg. Saxenda's label then sends the patient back through the weekly escalation "to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal adverse reactions associated with reinitiation of treatment." Three days is about five and a half half-lives, by which point most of the drug has cleared.
Stopping for tolerability. Saxenda's label says to discontinue if an adult cannot tolerate 3 mg — there is no adult maintenance dose below it — and if an adolescent cannot tolerate 2.4 mg.
Stopping for lack of effect. Saxenda is one of the weight-management labels that carries a response rule. Adults: "evaluate the change in body weight 16 weeks after initiating SAXENDA and discontinue SAXENDA if the patient has not lost at least 4% of baseline body weight." Adolescents: evaluate BMI after 12 weeks on the maintenance dose and stop if it has not fallen by at least 1%. How that compares with the weekly drugs, whose labels carry no such rule, is set out in GLP1 Ledger's page on how long a GLP-1 takes to work.
Combining. Both labels say liraglutide should not be used with another liraglutide product, and Saxenda's adds any other GLP-1 receptor agonist. Victoza's says that when it is used with insulin the two are injected separately and never mixed.
The pen, in millilitres and days
Every approved liraglutide product — both brands and all eight generics — is the same solution: 6 mg per mL in a 3 mL pen, 18 mg in total. The pens are dialled in milligrams, so the conversion below only matters when someone is reading a syringe or comparing across concentrations.
| Daily dose | Volume at 6 mg/mL | Reads on a U-100 syringe as | Days from one 18 mg pen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.6 mg | 0.1 mL | 10 units | 30 |
| 1.2 mg | 0.2 mL | 20 units | 15 |
| 1.8 mg | 0.3 mL | 30 units | 10 |
| 2.4 mg | 0.4 mL | 40 units | 7.5 |
| 3 mg | 0.5 mL | 50 units | 6 |
The "days" column is arithmetic on the pen's contents; it ignores the priming the Instructions for Use require before a new pen, so real counts run slightly lower. Saxenda's label stores unopened pens in a refrigerator and allows 30 days at room temperature or refrigerated after first use, so at the maintenance dose a pen is empty long before that limit.
Why daily, when the newer drugs are weekly
Saxenda's clinical pharmacology section gives the reason in three numbers: peak concentration about 11 hours after an injection, absolute bioavailability under the skin about 55%, and an elimination half-life "of approximately 13 hours, making liraglutide suitable for once daily administration." Semaglutide's labels give a half-life of about a week, which is what lets it be given weekly, as set out on our semaglutide page. How half-lives set dosing intervals across the peptides in this catalogue is on our peptide half-life page.
Generics, and who makes the molecule
Liraglutide is now a generic drug. The openFDA approvals database lists eight approved abbreviated applications for liraglutide 18 mg/3 mL, read on 2026-09-27:
| Company | Application | Approval date |
|---|---|---|
| Hikma | ANDA 215503 | 2024-12-23 |
| Nanjing King Friend | ANDA 218115 | 2025-04-02 |
| Lupin | ANDA 215421 | 2025-07-22 |
| Teva | ANDA 214568 | 2025-08-27 |
| Orbicular | ANDA 217590 | 2026-01-14 |
| Orbicular | ANDA 217234 | 2026-02-24 |
| Biocon | ANDA 217063 | 2026-02-24 |
| Biocon | ANDA 215245 | 2026-03-11 |
Five carry the equivalence code AP1 and three AP2 — two codes because Victoza and Saxenda share the 18 mg/3 mL strength, and FDA's Orange Book uses numbered codes to separate equivalents of different reference products at one strength. On the supply side, FDA's Drug Master File list carries 23 active drug-substance filings for liraglutide, as counted on our peptide sources page. A GLP-1 with eight approved generics and 23 registered active-ingredient filings is a different market from the unregistered compounds this site mostly covers: five research-vendor store feeds that answer public product searches listed no liraglutide at all when queried on 2026-09-27.
What the labels do not tell a reader
They do not set a dose for anyone in particular, and neither label supports dosing "between" the rungs or above its ceiling. Both carry the class boxed warning about thyroid C-cell tumours in rodents, whose relevance to humans the labels state is undetermined. Victoza's label is not a weight-loss label and Saxenda's is not a diabetes label, even though the molecule is the same and adults with type 2 diabetes appear in Saxenda's population. Side effects, the thyroid warning and interactions are prescribing questions for a clinician; how the GLP-1 drugs compare on the ones that stop people taking them is covered on GLP1 Ledger's page on the GLP-1 with the fewest side effects.
Sources and dates
Read 2026-09-27: Saxenda label (NDA 206321, effective 2026-02-25) and Victoza label (NDA 022341, Novo Nordisk version effective 2025-10-14), sections 1, 2, 3, 12.3 and 16 and the boxed warning, via the openFDA drug label endpoint; openFDA Drugs@FDA endpoint for all liraglutide applications, with submission dates and equivalence codes; WooCommerce store product searches at five research vendors. The Drug Master File count is from FDA's Q2 2026 list as recorded on this site on 2026-09-19. Corrections go to the contact page.