The United States Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to the first-ever pill-based version of Wegovy, a popular weight-loss drug developed by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
The approval marks a major shift in obesity treatment, as patients will now be able to take a once-daily tablet instead of relying on injections. According to Novo Nordisk, the pill offers the same weight-loss results as the injectable Wegovy, which had already been approved by the FDA specifically for obesity management.
This sets Wegovy apart from similar drugs such as Ozempic, which was initially cleared for treating type 2 diabetes but later gained attention for its weight-loss effects.
The tablet, branded by Novo Nordisk as the Wegovy pill, contains semaglutide—the same active ingredient used in the injectable Wegovy and in the diabetes drug Ozempic. While the various weight-loss medicines have not been directly compared in a single clinical trial, results from separate studies offer insight into their effectiveness.
Clinical data showed the Wegovy pill delivered an average weight loss of about 14% over 64 weeks, compared with roughly 2% among those given a placebo. By comparison, Eli Lilly’s experimental oral drug orforglipron led to an average 11% reduction in body weight over 72 weeks at its highest dose, also against a 2% placebo result.
Injectable treatments produced similar but varied outcomes. The Wegovy injection resulted in an average 15% weight loss in its main trial, versus 2% for the placebo group, while Zepbound recorded the strongest performance, with participants on its highest dose losing around 21% of their body weight, compared with 3% for those receiving a placebo.
The company expects to introduce the pill to the US market in early January 2026. Novo Nordisk’s chief executive, Mike Doustdar, described the tablet as a more convenient option that could make effective weight-loss treatment accessible to more patients.
Following the announcement, Novo Nordisk’s shares climbed nearly 10% in after-hours trading in New York, signaling strong investor confidence in the new product.
