The US Meals and Drug Administration immediately accepted a tablet model of the blockbuster anti-obesity drug Wegovy. Made by Novo Nordisk, the tablet is taken as soon as a day. The corporate’s unique model of Wegovy is a weekly injection. Each medication include the identical lively ingredient, semaglutide.
“This enables sufferers with weight problems who wish to drop a few pounds to have a selection between a as soon as weekly injection or a day by day pill,” says Martin Holst Lange, chief scientific officer at Novo Nordisk.
With the hovering reputation of injectable GLP-1 medication for weight reduction, Novo Nordisk and different pharmaceutical firms have been racing to make effective pill versions that may very well be preferable for some sufferers. These medication mimic a naturally occurring hormone within the physique that acts on the mind and intestine to advertise a sense of fullness.
In clinical trial results printed within the New England Journal of Medication, individuals who took the tablet achieved a median weight lack of 13.6 p.c by 64 weeks. Almost 30 p.c of individuals misplaced 20 p.c or extra of their weight. The examine additionally confirmed enhancements in heart problems danger and bodily exercise ranges just like the injectable model.
Whereas capsules can typically be a extra handy possibility, sufferers might not at all times take them as prescribed, making them much less efficient. The medical trial investigators estimated that in a really perfect state of affairs the place individuals take the tablet each day as prescribed, weight reduction could be 16.6 p.c—which has similarities to outcomes seen with injectable Wegovy.
Novo Nordisk first gained approval for an oral semaglutide, offered beneath the model identify Rybelsus, in 2019 to deal with sort 2 diabetes. That drug has by no means been accepted for weight problems and isn’t as efficient for weight reduction as newer GLP-1 drugs. The Wegovy tablet is basically a higher-dose model of Rybselsus.
“The efficacy for the weight problems tablet on the finish of the day is pushed by dose. Increased doses are required to realize full weight-loss potential for weight problems,” Lange says. The Wegovy tablet is 25 milligrams whereas Rybelsus is 14 milligrams.
The commonest unwanted side effects of oral Wegovy embrace nausea and vomiting, that are additionally unwanted side effects of the injectable model.
Novo says the beginning dose of the tablet, 1.5 milligrams, might be accessible in early January for $149 per 30 days with financial savings gives. Manufacturing of the treatment is already underway at Novo Nordisk’s US manufacturing websites, and the corporate expects to have sufficient of the drug to satisfy US demand.
