--- title: The Weight-Loss Drug Wegovy Now Comes in a Pill description: Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss drug, Wegovy, became the first oral GLP-1 approved by the FDA. canonical: https://time.com/7342274/the-weight-loss-drug-wegovy-now-comes-in-a-pill/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-12-23T16:24:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:42:47.415Z article:section: Health og:title: The Weight-Loss Drug Wegovy Now Comes in a Pill og:description: Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss drug, Wegovy, became the first oral GLP-1 approved by the FDA. og:url: https://time.com/7342274/the-weight-loss-drug-wegovy-now-comes-in-a-pill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ef5a9a3341f292d/6998cc7d25f3eef2a2645437/Novo-Nordisk-oral-semaglutide-25-mg_image-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4240 og:image:height: 2385 og:image:alt: Novo-Nordisk-oral-semaglutide-25-mg_image-2.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Weight-Loss Drug Wegovy Now Comes in a Pill twitter:description: Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss drug, Wegovy, became the first oral GLP-1 approved by the FDA. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ef5a9a3341f292d/6998cc7d25f3eef2a2645437/Novo-Nordisk-oral-semaglutide-25-mg_image-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Weight-Loss Drug Wegovy Now Comes in a Pill > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Dec 23, 2025 4:24 PM UTC  Novo Nordisk  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Dec 23, 2025 4:24 PM UTC People turning to injectable GLP-1 treatments—a class of drugs that mimics that hormone to control diabetes and promote weight loss—now have another way to take the medication. On Dec. 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [approved](https://www.novonordisk.com/content/nncorp/global/en/news-and-media/news-and-ir-materials/news-details.html?id=916472) Wegovy pill from Novo Nordisk. The pill will contain 25 mg of semaglutide—the same compound in the injectable version of Wegovy—to treat overweight or obesity, either for people who use the pills to start a weight-loss program or for those who use them to maintain weight loss. People prescribed the pill will take one a day. (By comparison, people using the pen versions of the medication inject themselves once a week.) “I am excited to launch the pill because I’ve recognized that so many people right now are in need of weight loss but are still not going forward with \[medications like Wegovy\] because there is a taboo with injections,” Novo Nordisk’s CEO Mike Doustdar tells TIME. “They want to swallow a pill without being judged if someone sees them injecting \[a medication\]. We waited and waited to make sure that when the pill comes out, it’s the right one and the most efficacious one.” In the studies the company submitted to the FDA, people who took the daily Wegovy pill lost about the same amount of weight—around 16.6% of their body mass—as those who gave themselves weekly Wegovy injections for just over a year. **Read More**: [_How a Nobel-Winning Researcher Transformed Cancer Treatments With His Lifesaving Curiosity_](https://time.com/collections/time-for-change/7341643/james-allison-cancer-research-treatment/) A safe and effective weight-loss pill has been a holy grail for pharmaceutical companies. One of the main challenges with developing one is that medicines often have a hard time surviving harsh stomach acids. The new pill incorporates proprietary technology used at Novo Nordisk to temporarily alter the specific area of the stomach where the pill lands and prevent it from getting degraded by the digestive enzymes too quickly, says Andrea Traina, medical director at Novo Nordisk. “That results in a bioavailability of the daily Wegovy pill with an efficacy and safety that is consistent with what we see with the injectable formulation of Wegovy,” she says. “At the end of the week, the average exposure levels of the two formulations are consistent.” Wegovy pill is not the first oral GLP-1 that Novo Nordisk has launched. Rybelsus is a semaglutide pill that the FDA approved in 2019 to treat diabetes. Doustdar says that Rybelsus and the Wegovy pill will differ in dose and in the conditions they treat. Wegogy pill contains about double the highest dose of Rybelsus, which is what studies showed is necessary to achieve a meaningful weight loss. Since both the injectable and pill versions of Wegovy contain the same main ingredient, semaglutide, the pill’s label also notes it can lower the risk of [heart disease](https://time.com/6334001/weight-loss-drug-wegovy-heart-study-results/). Wegovy pill is the first oral GLP-1 approved by the FDA to treat obesity. On Dec. 18, Novo Nordisk’s competitor Eli Lilly[ submitted](https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lillys-orforglipron-helped-people-maintain-weight-loss-after) an FDA request for approval of its GLP-1 pill, [orforglipron](https://time.com/7308056/weight-loss-pill-eli-lilly/), to help people maintain weight loss after completing a year-long series of using an injectable GLP-1\. In November, [Lilly received](https://time.com/7331880/white-house-deal-lowers-prices-weight-loss-drugs/) a Commissioner’s Priority Voucher, which means the review process for the drug could be shortened from months to weeks. Both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly joined with the White House to make GLP-1 drugs, including the pills, more affordable. The maintenance dose of the pills will cost $149 for a month’s supply for people who don't use insurance or who obtain them through government programs. 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