A capsule type of Wegovy, the favored weight problems drug beforehand accessible solely by injection, is now being stocked by pharmacies.
Novo Nordisk
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Novo Nordisk
The Wegovy capsule launched Monday, and the beginning dose is now accessible at pharmacies across the nation with larger doses arriving by the tip of the week.
The Meals and Drug Administration accredited the capsule for weight problems on Dec. 22. It is also accredited to cut back the danger of coronary heart assault and stroke in sufferers who’re overweight or chubby.
The capsule follows the blockbuster success of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy injection, which has been available on the market since 2021 and have become so common that it was in brief provide till February 2025.
The capsule model of the drug helped sufferers lose about as a lot weight because the injection. In a research printed within the New England Journal of Drugsa 25 milligram Wegovy capsule led to a 13.6% discount in weight on common over 64 weeks. Sufferers taking a placebo within the research misplaced 2.2% of their weight. For sufferers who stayed on the therapy, diminished their calorie consumption and exercised, Novo Nordisk estimates they might have a 16.6% discount of their weight.
Nonetheless, sufferers must take the Wegovy capsule on an empty abdomen and wait a half hour earlier than consuming anything for the drugs to be correctly absorbed. The commonest negative effects with the Wegovy capsule are just like the injection and embrace nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.
When Novo Nordisk introduced its drug-pricing cope with the Trump administration in Novemberit promised to make the weight problems capsule accessible for $149 a month to sufferers not utilizing their medical health insurance. Nonetheless, that is solely the beginning dose for the direct-to-consumer value. The upper doses might be accessible for $299 a month.
The value that impacts insurance coverage protection, referred to as a listing value, is similar because the Wegovy injection: $1,349 a month.
Insurance coverage protection for weight problems medication grew to become extra restrictive in 2025, in response to an evaluation from GoodRx, an internet site that helps sufferers discover reductions on pharmaceuticals. However Novo Nordisk says sufferers with insurance coverage protection can get the Wegovy capsule for as little as $25 a month.
Though the Wegovy capsule is the primary of its sort to win FDA approval, Novo Nordisk’s Kind 2 diabetes capsule, Rybelsus, is already available on the market. It incorporates the identical lively ingredient, semaglutide, however the doses are totally different.
Eli Lilly, which makes the Zepbound injection, utilized to the FDA in late 2025 for approval of its competing weight problems capsule. The company gave the corporate a voucher for a precedence overview and a choice may come early this 12 months.
