The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 22 approved a pill version of Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy.
The once-daily tablet — called the Wegovy pill — is the first oral version of glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs, or GLP-1s, Novo Nordisk said in a news release. The drugs were first used to treat diabetes but have since been approved for obesity, which has dramatically expanded the patient pool.
The pill is 25 milligrams of semaglutide, the same active ingredient in injectable Wegovy and Ozempic. The pill was approved for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight and at least one related health condition.
“Wegovy pill is the next chapter in our decades-long GLP-1 experience—supported by the most affordable self-pay price to date in a GLP-1 for obesity,” Dave Moore, executive vice president of U.S. Operations at Novo Nordisk, said in a statement. “We are prepared for a full US launch in early January 2026, with manufacturing well underway in our North Carolina facilities.”
Are GLP-1s to blame? These people lost their sense of taste.
Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas and Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FDA approves Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy weight-loss pill
