Wegovy daily pill Is here: How to get it and what it costs
Image of 1.5 mg starter dose of Wegovy® pill (PRNewsfoto/NOVO NORDISK INC.)
PLAINSBORO, N.J. and BAGSVÆRD, Denmark - The Wegovy pill is now available, becoming the first GLP-1 weight-loss medicine offered in a once-daily pill for adults living with obesity.
U.S. regulators first gave the green light to a pill version of the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy last month.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval handed drugmaker Novo Nordisk an edge over rival Eli Lilly in the race to market an obesity pill. Lilly’s oral drug, orforglipron, is still under review.
RELATED: Wegovy pill for weight loss approved by FDA; 1st of its kind
What they're saying:
"We know there are people who are interested in addressing their weight but have been waiting on the sidelines for a medicine that was right for them," Ed Cinca, senior vice president, Marketing & Patient Solutions at Novo Nordisk said in an online news release. "For many of them, that wait is over as we can now offer the powerful efficacy of Wegovy in a once-daily pill that demonstrated about 17% weight loss, if all patients stayed on treatment."
Why you should care:
Availability of oral pills to treat obesity could expand the booming market for obesity treatments by broadening access and reducing costs, experts said.
Acccording to Novo Nordisk, the Wegovy pill can deliver a level of weight loss unmatched by any other oral GLP-1 obesity candidate in phase 3 trials, achieving an average weight loss of approximately 17% (16.6%) when used alongside a reduced-calorie diet and exercise and when all patients remained on treatment, compared with about 3% (2.7%) for placebo.
RELATED: Trump announces price cuts on Wegovy, Zepbound
Big picture view:
About 1 in 8 Americans have used injectable GLP-1 drugs, according to a survey from KFF, a nonprofit health policy research group. But many more have trouble affording the costly shots.
Number of obese and overweight children increasing worldwide, report finds
A UNICEF assessment on childhood nutrition found that the number of overweight children has increased on every continent.
Dig deeper:
The Novo Nordisk obesity pill contains 25 milligrams of semaglutide. That’s the same ingredient in injectables Wegovy and Ozempic and in Rybelsus, a lower-dose pill approved to treat diabetes in 2019.
In a clinical trial, participants who took oral Wegovy lost 13.6% of their total body weight on average over about 15 months, compared with a 2.2% loss if they took a placebo, or dummy pill. That’s nearly the same as injectable Wegovy, with an average weight loss of about 15%.
Producing pills is generally cheaper than making drugs delivered via injections, so the cost for the new oral medications could be lower. The Trump administration earlier this year said officials had worked with drugmakers to negotiate lower prices for the GLP-1 drugs, which can cost upwards of $1,000 a month.
By the numbers:
The Wegovy pill is available to eligible patients with a range of affordability options.
Self-pay patients can begin treatment for approximately $5 per day ($149 per month) at the 1.5 mg starting dose. The 4 mg dose is also available for $149 per month through April 15, 2026, increasing to $199 per month thereafter, while the highest doses of Wegovy pill will be priced at $299 per month. Commercially insured patients may pay as little as $25 per month with the Wegovy savings offer.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in the story is based primarily on a PR Newswire press release issued by Novo Nordisk. This story was reported from Los Angeles.