Injectable weight-loss medication Wegovy and its counterpart Ozempic will likely be available in pill form in the future, researchers said Sunday at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions conference.
According to one of the two studies presented, 50 milligrams of semaglutide, the active ingredient in both medications, ingested orally each day "is roughly as effective as weekly Wegovy shots in reducing weight in people who are overweight or obese," The New York Times reported, noting that Wegovy injections themselves contain 2.4 milligrams of semaglutide.
In the second study, roughly 1,600 Type 2 diabetics (the intended clientele for Ozempic) were divided into groups and given different daily doses of oral semaglutide. Those who received the two highest doses lost more weight than those who took the lowest dose, and also saw greater reductions in blood sugar, per the Times.
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"I suspect there are a lot of people that are not using these treatments because it requires an injection," said the American Diabetes Association's Dr. Robert Gabbay. "If you could say, 'Well, actually, it doesn't,' that's big."
Novo Nordisk, the company that manufactures both drugs and funded the trials, plans to file for approval with the Food and Drug Administration at some point in 2023, a spokesperson told NBC News. The company also already offers a lower-dose oral semaglutide called Rybelsus, which is approved for adults with Type 2 diabetes and is reportedly less effective than both Ozempic and Wegovy.
While the promise of an effective weight loss drug sounds enticing, both Wegovy and Ozempic are not without their side effects, which can include vomiting, nausea and diarrhea. And that's also without mentioning their possible broader societal impacts, such as the detrimental idealization of a certain body type.
"I am concerned about these medications being broadly used just to promote weight loss" and "how it contributes to our general diet culture, our cultural obsession with thinness," Dr. Scott Hagan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington, told the Times.
Likewise, Tigress Osborn, chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, worries that a highly-effective weight loss pill will put pressure on those who are obese to use it, even if they don't want to. "There is no escape from the narrative that your body is wrong and it should change," he told The Associated Press.
