FDA approves first prescription pill for weight loss
(CBS, KYMA) - The FDA has approved the first prescription pill for weight loss, the same medicine as GLP-1 medications you inject into your body.
The Novo Nordisk obesity pill contains 25 milligrams of semaglutide. That's the same ingredient in injectables Wegovy and Ozempic and in Rybelsus, a lower-dose pill approved to treat diabetes in 2019.
In a clinical trial, participants who took oral Wegovy lost 13.6% of their total body weight on average over about 15 months, compared with a 2.2% loss if they took a placebo, or dummy pill.
That's nearly the same as injectable Wegovy, with an average weight loss of about 15%.
The new pills are expected to be available in just a few weeks. About 1 in 8 Americans say they take a GLP-1 drug to lose weight and these pills are likely to make the drugs even more popular.
