The US Food and Drug Administration approved on Monday a daily pill version of Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss drug Wegovy. The move gives patients another option to take medicines in class of drugs that have completely changed the treatment of obesity.
Novo Nordisk is calling the new medicine the Wegovy pill. It contains semaglutide, the same key ingredient used in Wegovy injections and in the company’s diabetes drug, Ozempic.
Until now, Wegovy and Ozempic have been taken as weekly shots. Other similar medicines, such as Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro, are also given by injection. These drugs copy the GLP-1 hormone, which helps control appetite and blood sugar. According to health policy group KFF, around one in eight adults in the US are currently using one of these medicines, the CNN reported.
Another pill from Eli Lilly, is also likely to be approved in near future, according to the NBC News.
What do the experts say?
Dr Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist who runs a weight loss clinic in Cary, North Carolina, told NBC News that the development marks real progress in obesity treatment. He said that while the pill will not take the place of injections, it adds a useful new option for doctors and patients.
He also pointed out that tablets feel more familiar and less scary for many people and are easier to include in daily life. For a lot of patients, taking a pill is not only simpler but also feels more comfortable on a mental level, McGowan added.
Novo Nordisk’s US medical lead, Dr Jason Brett, was of the same opinion and told CNN that the pill is expected to give patients more choices and help more people start treatment. He too noted that since some patients avoid injections altogether, and a tablet could remove that barrier.
How much will the new Wegovy pill cost?
The starting dose of Wegovy pill will cost $149 for people paying out of their pockets, based on a deal announced in November with the Trump administration, the CNN reported. The report further added that the cost of the pill is expected to go up as patients move to higher doses, though Novo Nordisk has not shared those prices yet. For people whose insurance includes the drug, the amount they pay is likely to be much lower.
When will the new drug hit the market?
The Wegovy pill is one of two GLP-1 tablets expected to reach patients soon. The second pill is being developed by Eli Lilly and is currently known as orforglipron, until it gets an official brand name. It is expected to receive approval from the US drug regulator by summer.
The two pills have not been tested against each other in the same study. However, CNN reported that the results from separate trials show that Wegovy pill helped patients lose an average of 14% of their body weight over 64 weeks, compared to 2% in people who took a placebo. In its own trial, orforglipron led to an average weight loss of 11% over 72 weeks at the highest dose, while the placebo group lost about 2%.
For comparison, earlier studies found that the Wegovy injection resulted in about 15% weight loss, compared to 2% with a placebo, the CNN report added. Eli Lilly’s injectable drug Zepbound showed even higher results, with patients losing around 21% of their weight at the highest dose, versus 3% in the placebo group.
