Going by the findings of a study published in the online Thursday-edition of the Lancet, the injected diabetes medication, liraglutide, manufactured by the Danish company Novo Nordisk, may also promote weight loss in obese people.

Liraglutide, which is marketed under the brand name Victoza, was approved in Europe, earlier this year, for the treatment of type 2 diabetes; and is currently being reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As per the most recent, Novo Nordisk-funded, study related to liraglutide, as many as 75 percent of the diabetics who were administered fairly high daily doses of the drug shed at least 5 percent their body weight, along with showing improvement in their blood sugar levels.

For the 20-week weight loss study, the researchers included 564 obese people undergoing treatment at 19 European sites. The participants were either given daily injections of liraglutide, or injections of an inactive placebo, or else the oral weight-loss drug ‘orlistat.’

The researchers, instructing the participants to follow calorie-restricted diets, found that there was a notably higher weight loss in participants who received liraglutide doses, vis-à-vis those who received either the placebo-treatment or the orlistat drug.

Nonetheless, noting that the findings of the study are “encouraging,” Novo Nordisk Chief Science Officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen added that “it is important to stress that this is only phase II data” and further research is needed.