Anvisa, Brazil's health regulator, has approved the registration of two generic drugs based on liraglutide, the active ingredient in injectable pens used to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes. The authorizations went to the Brazilian pharmaceutical company EMS and were published on Tuesday (Sept. 8) in the Diário Oficial da União, the federal government's official gazette. The products will come as a 6 mg/mL injectable solution given under the skin.
According to the state news agency Agência Brasil, the two registrations are tied to pens EMS already sells: Olire, for weight control in adults and adolescents, and Lirux, for managing blood sugar. News outlet G1 notes that Anvisa approved both pens in December 2024 and they began reaching pharmacies in August 2025.
What changes with the registration
The change is regulatory. Registered as generics, the products can be sold under the name of the active ingredient, liraglutide, without a commercial brand. In the official document the drugs appear as a "generic, clone registration", a simplified procedure Anvisa uses when a new product shares the composition, manufacturer and production line of a drug that has already gone through the agency's full review, called the matrix drug. Here the matrices are precisely Olire and Lirux, and the differences are limited to the name, labeling and legal information on the package.
To qualify as a generic, a drug must have the same active ingredient, concentration, pharmaceutical form, route of administration and indication as the reference drug, and must show equivalence so that it can be substituted for it. The new registrations cover packs with one, two, three, five and up to ten 3 mL cartridges, the small reservoir that fits into the applicator pen.
No price or launch date yet
This is where the announcement stops. Approval does not mean the generic versions will be on shelves right away: according to G1, EMS still has to set the launch and the commercial prices. In Brazil, maximum drug prices are regulated by the CMED (Medicine Market Regulation Chamber), and the current rule caps the factory price of a generic at 65% of the value authorized for the reference drug. That does not guarantee a proportional drop at the counter, since the final price varies with taxes, manufacturer discounts and the commercial policy of pharmacy chains.
Some market figures help put this in context. When it launched Olire and Lirux in 2025, EMS announced suggested prices starting at R$ 307.26 per pen. Liraglutide has been sold in Brazil for years and is also the active ingredient in Saxenda, for weight control, and Victoza, for type 2 diabetes, both made by Novo Nordisk. The molecule is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, the same class as semaglutide, found in Ozempic and Wegovy, and it mimics a gut hormone involved in controlling glucose and appetite. One practical difference from the newest pens: liraglutide is injected every day, while semaglutide and tirzepatide have weekly versions.
For anyone using or considering these drugs, this is what can be said today: the approved generics are equivalent to the matrix drugs already reviewed by Anvisa, but they have no arrival date in pharmacies and no announced price. The two indications are separate, one aimed at obesity and the other at type 2 diabetes, each with its own dosing. According to G1, sales require a prescription, which is kept by the pharmacy. The guidance remains the usual one: talk to the prescriber before switching formulation or dose, and buy only with a prescription from a pharmacy.