Oral Wegovy Approved

GLP-1 drugs mimic a gut hormone that helps people feel full and eat less. In late December 2025, the Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy tablets, making semaglutide available for weight loss as a once-daily pill instead of only a weekly shot. (fda.gov) The new tablet is approved with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for adults with obesity, or adults who are overweight with at least one weight-related condition. The label also says the oral form can be used to reduce major cardiovascular events in adults with established cardiovascular disease and obesity or overweight. (fda.gov) The approval rested in part on OASIS 4, a 71-week Phase 3 trial that enrolled 307 adults without diabetes at 22 sites in four countries. Participants were assigned in a 2-to-1 ratio to oral semaglutide 25 milligrams once daily or placebo, alongside lifestyle changes. (nejm.org) By week 64, the estimated mean weight change was minus 13.6% with oral semaglutide versus minus 2.2% with placebo. Trial participants on the pill were also more likely to lose at least 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of body weight. (nejm.org) The tradeoff looked familiar to anyone who has followed injectable GLP-1 drugs: stomach-related side effects were common. In OASIS 4, gastrointestinal adverse events were reported in 74.0% of people on oral semaglutide and 42.2% on placebo. (nejm.org) Semaglutide itself was not new when the obesity pill arrived. Novo Nordisk’s oral semaglutide had already been on the market since 2019 for type 2 diabetes under the brand name Rybelsus, while Wegovy for obesity had been sold as a weekly injection. (jamanetwork.com) Novo Nordisk said on January 5, 2026, that the Wegovy pill was available by prescription through more than 70,000 U.S. pharmacies. JAMA reported that rollout as the point when the oral version became broadly available in the United States. (jamanetwork.com) The pill and the shot use the same active ingredient, but they are not taken the same way. JAMA reported that the tablet is absorbed through the digestive system, while the injection is given under the skin, and physicians said the choice will turn on side effects, cost, and patient preference as much as efficacy. (jamanetwork.com) The obesity-pill market did not stay a one-company story for long. On April 1, 2026, the Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s orforglipron for obesity, and AJMC described it as the only GLP-1 pill that can be taken without food-or-water timing restrictions, a contrast with oral semaglutide’s more rigid dosing routine. (ajmc.com) Wegovy’s oral debut still changed the basic pitch of the drug: same semaglutide, different route into the body. For patients who would not start a weekly injection, the new version turned a shot into a pill bottle. (jamanetwork.com)