Diabetes-Related Effectiveness and Cost of Liraglutide or Insulin in German Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A 5-Year Retrospective Claims Analysis.

Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 analogue used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). To date, limited long-term data (> 2 years) exist comparing real-world diabetes-related effectiveness and costs for liraglutide versus insulin treatment. This retrospective claims data analysis covered the period from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2017 and included continuously insured patients with T2DM who initiated insulin or liraglutide and had 3.5 or 5 years’ follow-up data, identified using the German AOK PLUS dataset. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to adjust for patient characteristics. After PSM, there were 825 and 436 patients in the liraglutide and insulin groups at 3.5 and 5 years’ follow-up, respectively. Baseline characteristics were similar between compared cohorts. The respective change from baseline to follow-up in mean glycated haemoglobin for liraglutide and insulin patients was − 0.88% and − 0.81% (p > 0.100) after 3.5 years and − 1.15%/ − 1.02% (p > 0.100) after 5 years. Mean respective changes in body mass index (kg/m2) were − 1.21/+ 1.14 (p   0.100). The clinical effectiveness of liraglutide is maintained long term (up to 5 years). Liraglutide treatment is not associated with higher total direct healthcare costs.