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Can you get Wegovy tablets for weight loss?

Simon Edward • 26 November 2024

The weight loss drug Wegovy is taken as an injection. But can you get Wegovy tablets? Explore the facts.

Wegovy is a clinically proven weight loss drug that's approved for use on prescription in the UK. If you use Wegovy once a week for the full course of treatment, you can expect to lose around 15% of your body weight.¹

The problem, for some people, is that Wegovy must be taken as an injection at home. The needle is only tiny and most patients find it quite painless. However, this won't provide much comfort for those who are needle-phobic or who otherwise struggle to self-inject.

Is there an alternative for those who can't inject Wegovy? Can you get Wegovy in pill form?

The answer is, 'yes – sort of'. Wegovy's active ingredient is available as a tablet. However, these tablets are not supposed to be used for weight loss. And if you take them this way, you shouldn't expect the same results as you'd get with the injection.

What are Rybelsus semaglutide tablets?

Rybelsus is the brand name for a type of diabetes medication.

Rybelsus contains semaglutide: the same active ingredient used in Wegovy. The two drugs are also made by the same company, Novo Nordisk.

Rybelsus is not licensed as a weight loss tablet in the UK. It is only approved as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. However, the drug is sometimes prescribed 'off-label' for the treatment of obesity.

Apart from their licensing differences, the main difference between Wegovy and Rybelsus is the route of administration (the way you take them). Because they contain the same active ingredient, the two drugs work for weight loss in exactly the same way. However, Rybelsus delivers semaglutide in oral tablets, while Wegovy is taken as an injection.

A woman is holding a syringe in her stomach.

The dosing schedule is also different. With Wegovy, you only need to take one injection per week for the drug to work. Rybelsus must be taken daily.

Are Rybelsus tablets available on the Semapen programme?

No. And there are a couple of good reasons for that.

The first relates to licensing. Rybelsus is meant to treat type 2 diabetes. Prescribing drugs 'off-label' for other conditions often causes problems for those who the drugs are meant to treat.

We saw this with Ozempic – another semaglutide-based drug that's designed to treat diabetes. Ignoring its intended use, many doctors began to prescribe Ozempic for weight loss. This predictably caused shortages of the drug for the diabetic patients who needed it.

The second reason we don't prescribe semaglutide weight loss pills is that they simply don't seem to work as well as the injections.

There's a wider body of evidence supporting Wegovy as an effective weight loss treatment. However, the studies that exist for oral semaglutide tablets tend to show a lower efficacy (effectiveness) than injectable semaglutide.

We'd love to offer another option for those who find injecting Wegovy uncomfortable or impossible. However, until Rybelsus is licensed for weight loss and supported by wider studies, we'll continue to provide the treatment option with the most proven benefits.

Learn more about SemaPen's effective and affordable weight loss programmes.

Sources

1. Results are based on the STEP 1 Wegovy trial. Results vary – weight loss can be more or less than the 15% average.

Wilding, J.P.H. et al. (2021) "Once-weekly semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity" New England Journal of Medicine, 384(11) https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183

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