 Patna,(BiharTimes): Reputed endocrinologist, Dr Ajay Kumar of Patna, has helped develop Liraglutide, a new anti-diabetic drug, which got the approval of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States for clinical use. He has been actively involved in its development since 2006 which is set to be launched in India soon.
The 56-year-old Kumar, hailing from Loma village in Vaishali district of Bihar, who did his post-graduation from UK, was one of the principal investigators in the research and clinical development of Liraglutide.
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He has already presented his scientific data on the drug in Germany, Denmark, Turkey and Singapore over the past six months. Kumar is also one of the global advisers for further research on Liraglutide to expand its clinical uses.
“Liraglutide has the unique ability to control blood sugar without causing hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). It is well known that the fear of hypoglycemia is the single-most limiting factor in achieving good blood sugar control in diabetic patients,” Kumar told the BiharTimes. |
The new drug releases insulin from human pancreas only when the blood sugar levels are high and shuts off the secretion of insulin when the sugar level is about to normalise. Liraglutide has another advantage of causing significant weight loss in obese diabetics. This could be a boon to a large number of patients afflicted with the twin problems of diabetes and obesity, he pointed out.
“Liraglutide also has the distinction of favourably influencing various surrogate markers of cardio-vascular complications. Most important amongst them is reduction in the systolic blood pressure,” he said.
It is well-known that diabetics are prone to various cardio-vascular complications like heart attacks, paralysis, gangrene, etc. The new drug also has the ability to preserve the insulin secreting capacity of pancreatic beta cells in the human body for a prolonged period.
comments...
Many congratulation to Dr. Ajay Kumar & best wishes to carry further research.
Jitender Singh
Bangkok
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I am a former student of Dr. Ajay Kumar at PMCH and want to congratulate him on this achievement. This is the second in the class of drugs known as GLP-1 analog which helps glucose dependent insulin secretion for diabetic patients who still have functioning pancreas. It also promotes weight loss and is once a day injection in contrast to it's predecessor Exenetide. I am a speaker for this drug and will train other physicians about it. I have successfully used Exenetide on thousands of patients and am looking forward to use Liraglutide marketed as Victoza by Novo Nordisk here in the USA.
Best wishes
Amar Singh, M.D.
Harbin Clinic
Rome, GA 30165. USA
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Liraglutide is planned to be marketed in USA by trade name "Victozais".It ibelongs to group of medicines called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists that help the pancreas make more insulin after eating a meal.I think this drug will offer new alternative in treatment of Diabetes and I commend Dr. Ajay Kumar for his initiative in doing drug trial and development and we hope he will continue to make us proud by his initiative in clinical research.
Harjinder Chowdhary,MD
Rheumatologist ,USA
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It's a matter of great pride for all
of us to see this milestone development coming from Bihar. Dr
Ajay Kumar's work is not only a great contribution to science,it's a significant event in the history of
basic medical research in Bihar as well.
Well done.
Rajiva Ranjan Das
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it makes us proud as Bihari settled now in Delhi to read
such achievements by a Patna Doctor in the field of Diebetes
done in Bihar where research facility and labs are still in
primitive stage. Doctor needs to be congratulated on this
remarkable discovery of 22nd century and wish Bihar becomes
a land of such scientists contributing so significantly in
the modern medical world. Well done! Keep it up!!!
Dr Daya Dayal
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This
is the pride of Bihari as
well as indian for innovetive work done by Dr. Ajay Kumar.
We should
heartly thanks the dedication and patient of Dr. Ajay in
the interest
of crores of crores suffering peoples. We wish for more
sucess in
future.
Deepak Bharti
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Clarification from Dr. Ajay Kumar
Being one of the prinincipal investigators for clinical development of liraglutide, I must clarify the misunderstanding about the risk of thyroid cancer.
Risk of thyroid cancer was seen only in animal models during early development of liraglutide by Novo Nordisk and that too with doses 30 times more than used in humans. This was related to presence of c-cells on rat and mice thyroid tissue. However the number of c-cell receptors in humans as compared to animals are negligible.
During the entire clinical development programme, not a single case of thyroid cancer has been reported in humans. Even the level of serum calcitonin, which is a surrogate marker for development of thyroid cancer was cloosely follwed by us in more than 6000 patients and they were not elevated.
In conclusion, liraglutide is absolutely safe for human consumption.
Dr Ajay Kumar
Liraglutide by Novo Nordisk
The drug developed by Novo Nordisk is still known to cause serious thyroid tumors thus this is not as safe as people could understand. The US FDA has also issued a warning about this.
Hari Shanker Sharma,
Professor of Neurobiology (MRC)
Sweden
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