What Is Saxenda?

1. What the Label Covers

The current Saxenda label, revised June 2026, approves it in combination with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity to reduce excess body weight and maintain that reduction long term in two groups: adults with obesity, or overweight with at least one weight-related condition; and adolescents aged 12 and older with obesity and a body weight above 60 kg. Type 2 diabetes is not an indication, and the label notes safety and effectiveness have not been established in adolescents with type 2 diabetes. It also says not to combine Saxenda with any other liraglutide product or any other GLP-1 receptor agonist.

2. The Five-Week Ladder

For adults, 3 mg is the dose; the lower steps are for tolerability only, and the label says to discontinue if 3 mg cannot be tolerated. If a step is not tolerated, escalation can be delayed about a week. Adolescents may take up to 8 weeks to escalate, may step back down, and may stay on 2.4 mg if 3 mg is not tolerated.

Two rules are specific to this label. A missed dose is skipped, but if more than three days have passed since the last dose, the ladder restarts at 0.6 mg, because with a 13-hour half-life the drug is gone and the tolerance it built with it. And there is a stopping rule: adults who have not lost at least 4% of baseline weight after 16 weeks on Saxenda should discontinue, since further loss is unlikely; for adolescents the check is a 1% BMI reduction after 12 weeks on the maintenance dose. The injection goes under the skin of the abdomen, thigh, or upper arm at any time of day, with or without food. The titration schedule tool covers the weekly drugs; the Saxenda ladder is simple enough to write out.

3. What SCALE Showed

SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes randomised 3,731 adults without diabetes, mean weight 106 kg and mean BMI 38, to liraglutide 3 mg or placebo with lifestyle counselling for 56 weeks.

Two further trials sit on the label. SCALE Maintenance took 422 adults who had already lost at least 5% on a low-calorie diet and found a further 6.2% loss on liraglutide over 56 weeks against 0.2% on placebo, which is the basis of the “maintain weight reduction” wording. The adolescent trial, 251 participants aged 12 to 17, found a BMI reduction of at least 5% in 43.3% on liraglutide versus 18.7% on placebo, which earned the pediatric indication in December 2020.

4. Saxenda Against the Weekly Drugs

The daily molecule has been tested directly against its weekly successor, and the gap is large.

What Saxenda still offers: a daily dose that clears within days if it has to be stopped, the longest record of any weight-loss GLP-1, and generic pricing. For the head-to-head between the weekly drugs, see Wegovy vs Zepbound.

5. Safety

The label opens with the boxed warning on thyroid C-cell tumors, seen in rodents, and contraindicates Saxenda for anyone with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2, and for known hypersensitivity to liraglutide. The warnings are the class set, plus one: acute pancreatitis, acute gallbladder disease, hypoglycemia when combined with insulin or a sulfonylurea (and in the adolescent trial even without them), heart rate increase with a direction to monitor heart rate, acute kidney injury from dehydration, severe gastrointestinal reactions, and delayed gastric emptying before anesthesia. The label lists nausea, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, injection site reactions, headache, hypoglycemia, dyspepsia, fatigue, dizziness, and abdominal pain as reactions reported by 5% or more. Most gastrointestinal effects occur during the five-week escalation. The label also asks to stop the drug if pregnancy is recognised.

6. Generic Liraglutide for Weight Reduction

Generic liraglutide referencing Victoza was approved on December 23, 2024. Generic liraglutide labeled for weight reduction, referencing Saxenda, followed, and DailyMed now lists it from several manufacturers, including Teva, Cipla, and Biocon. A generic carries the same 6 mg/mL pen, the same ladder to 3 mg, the same stopping rule, and the same warnings. For a person keeping a record, the product name on the box is the thing to write down, because “liraglutide injection” now covers products with two different labels.

7. Where the Molecule Details Live

This page is about the weight-reduction brand. What Is Liraglutide? covers the molecule, its 13-hour half-life, and the LEADER cardiovascular trial; What Is Victoza? covers the diabetes label. For a record, the entry is product, date, milligrams, and injection site, once a day; How GLP-1 tracking works covers what to keep.

8. What Is Saxenda FAQ

• What is Saxenda in simple terms?

  Saxenda is a once-daily injection of liraglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, at a 3 mg dose for weight reduction. It reduces appetite and slows the stomach. It is the same molecule as Victoza, which is dosed up to 1.8 mg for type 2 diabetes.

• How much weight do people lose on Saxenda?

  In the SCALE trial, adults without diabetes lost a mean 8.4 kg over 56 weeks on 3 mg against 2.8 kg on placebo, or 7.4% versus 3.0% of body weight by the label's analysis. About 62% lost at least 5% of their weight, and 34% lost more than 10%. In people with type 2 diabetes, the loss was smaller: 5.4% versus 1.7%.

• How is Saxenda dosed?

  0.6 mg daily in week 1, then 1.2, 1.8, 2.4, and 3 mg in weeks 2 to 5. The 3 mg dose is the maintenance dose for adults; the lower doses are steps. If a step is not tolerated the label allows delaying escalation about a week. If more than 3 days of doses are missed, restart at 0.6 mg.

• Is Saxenda better than Wegovy?

  No, on the trial evidence. In STEP 8, weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg (the Wegovy dose) produced 15.8% weight loss at 68 weeks versus 6.4% on daily liraglutide 3 mg. Saxenda's remaining advantages are a daily dose that clears in days, a longer record, and generic pricing.

• Is there a generic Saxenda?

  Yes. DailyMed lists generic liraglutide injection labeled for weight reduction from several manufacturers, at the same doses in the same type of pen. The first generic liraglutide, referencing Victoza, was approved in December 2024; generics referencing Saxenda followed.

9. Sources