An oral version of Ozempic is in the works


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.
"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.
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
From Da Vinci to a golden toilet: a history of museum heists
In the Spotlight Following the ‘spectacular’ events at the Louvre, museums are ‘increasingly being targeted by criminal gangs’
-
Can Gen Z uprisings succeed where other protest movements failed?
Today's Big Question Apolitical and leaderless, youth-led protests have real power but are vulnerable to the strongman opportunist
-
The allegations of Christian genocide in Nigeria
The Explainer West African nation has denied claims from US senator and broadcaster
-
FDA OKs generic abortion pill, riling the right
Speed Read The drug in question is a generic version of mifepristone, used to carry out two-thirds of US abortions
-
RFK Jr. vaccine panel advises restricting MMRV shot
Speed Read The committee voted to restrict access to a childhood vaccine against chickenpox
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreak
Speed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agency
Speed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year high
Speed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, change
Speed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panel
speed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kids
Speed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials