Liraglutide Brand Names: Victoza, Saxenda — and the Only Generic GLP-1

Liraglutide brand names are Victoza, Saxenda and Xultophy. All three come from Novo Nordisk, and as with semaglutide, the same molecule carries different names depending on what it is approved to treat.

But liraglutide has something no other GLP-1 has, and it is the reason this page is worth more than a naming table.

Liraglutide is the only GLP-1 with approved generics

Searching the FDA's approved-drugs database for liraglutide returns fourteen applications. Three are the Novo Nordisk brands. Eleven are approved generics, filed by:

• Mylan Institutional · Biocon Pharma (two) · Fresenius Kabi · Sandoz · Teva
• Lupin · Orbicular (two) · Hikma · Nanjing King Friend

All eleven carry the marketing status Prescription — they are approved and on the market, not pending.

Now compare the rest of the class:

Molecule	Brands	Approved generics
Liraglutide	Victoza, Saxenda, Xultophy	11
Semaglutide	Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Wegovy tablets	0
Tirzepatide	Mounjaro, Zepbound	0
Dulaglutide	Trulicity	0

This matters more than it sounds. Every conversation about cheaper GLP-1s runs through compounded semaglutide or grey-market peptides, both of which carry real quality questions — see what the FDA databases actually show for how bad that end of the market gets.

Generic liraglutide is a different category entirely. It is an FDA-approved drug, made under inspection, dispensed by an ordinary pharmacy. Not compounded, not imported, not "research use only". If a cheaper GLP-1 is what you need, this is the one that exists inside the regulatory system rather than beside it.

Whether it is right for you is a separate question, and the honest answer is below.

The three brands, side by side

Brand	Approved for	Form	Doses
Victoza	Type 2 diabetes (age 10+), plus cardiovascular risk reduction in adults with T2D and established CV disease	Daily injection	0.6, 1.2, 1.8 mg
Saxenda	Chronic weight management in adults, and children 12+ over 60 kg with obesity	Daily injection	up to 3 mg
Xultophy 100/3.6	Type 2 diabetes — liraglutide combined with insulin degludec	Daily injection	Combination

The Victoza/Saxenda split is exactly the Ozempic/Wegovy split: same molecule, one labelled for diabetes at a lower ceiling, one labelled for weight at a higher one. See semaglutide brand names for the same pattern.

Xultophy is the one most people have never heard of — liraglutide plus a long-acting insulin in a single daily injection, for type 2 diabetes only. It is not a weight-management product.

Victoza dosing

Start at 0.6 mg daily for one week, then increase to 1.2 mg. If more glycaemic control is needed, increase to 1.8 mg after a week at 1.2 mg. Injected subcutaneously once daily at any time of day, independently of meals, into the abdomen, thigh or upper arm.

The 0.6 mg step is a tolerance step, not a treatment dose — the same principle every drug in this class uses.

Saxenda dosing

The recommended dose is 3 mg daily. Start at 0.6 mg for one week and increase at weekly intervals until 3 mg is reached — so about five weeks to target.

For children, escalation may take up to 8 weeks, and the dose may be stepped back down to the previous level if an increase is not tolerated.

The daily-injection problem

This is liraglutide's real disadvantage and it is worth being blunt about: Victoza and Saxenda are injected every day. Semaglutide and tirzepatide are weekly.

Seven injections a week against one is not a small difference in practice, and it is the main reason liraglutide lost ground once the weekly drugs arrived. If needles are the obstacle, a generic price does not fix it.

How well does it work?

Less well than the newer drugs, and the gap is not marginal.

Liraglutide at 3 mg produced roughly 8% mean weight loss over 56 weeks in the SCALE trial, against about 14.9% for semaglutide over 68 weeks in STEP-1 and 20.9% for tirzepatide over 72 weeks in SURMOUNT-1. See GLP-1 weight loss results by drug.

So the trade is legible: a genuinely approved generic, at roughly half the weight loss, injected seven times as often. For someone who cannot afford or cannot obtain the newer drugs, that is a real option rather than a consolation prize. For someone who can, it is not the first choice.

Safety: the same boxed warning as the rest of the class

Both Victoza and Saxenda carry the thyroid C-cell tumour boxed warning. The wording is the class standard: liraglutide causes dose-dependent and treatment-duration-dependent thyroid C-cell tumours at clinically relevant exposures in rats and mice, and whether it does so in humans is unknown.

Both are contraindicated in anyone with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma, or with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2.

Two limitations worth knowing, both stated on the labels:

• Do not combine liraglutide products. Victoza should not be co-administered with other liraglutide-containing products, and Saxenda's label goes further — co-administration with any other GLP-1 receptor agonist is not recommended.
• Victoza is not for type 1 diabetes.

Side effects follow the class pattern — nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, worst during escalation. See Saxenda side effects.

Is generic liraglutide worth asking about?

Three situations where the answer is yes:

• Your plan excludes GLP-1s and the manufacturer routes have not closed the gap. A generic is priced differently from a brand, and it is the only GLP-1 where that sentence applies at all. Compare against the routes in our cost guide first.
• You were considering compounded semaglutide on price. An approved generic and a compounded preparation are not the same category of thing, whatever the price comparison says.
• You have type 2 diabetes. Victoza's generics are the diabetes-labelled version, which is usually the easier coverage argument.

And where it is not: if a daily injection will not fit your life, or if you need the weight-loss numbers the newer drugs produce, the generic price does not change either fact.

This article is general information, not medical advice. The application list was read from Drugs@FDA on 5 August 2026 and the dosing, indications, boxed warning and contraindications from the Victoza and Saxenda labelling via the openFDA label API the same day. Approvals and marketing status change; a generic being approved does not guarantee your pharmacy stocks it or that your plan prices it favourably. Which drug in this class fits you is a clinical decision that needs your own history in front of it.