{"id":775827,"date":"2026-07-03T05:30:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/775827\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:30:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:30:37","slug":"canada-approves-generic-version-of-wegovy-for-weight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/775827\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada approves generic version of Wegovy for weight loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> FILE – A dosage of Wegovy, March 1, 2024 in Front Royal, Va. (AP Photo\/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File) – The Canadian Press <\/p>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 Health Canada has approved a generic version of Wegovy, a semaglutide drug that’s prescribed to help people lose weight. <\/p>\n

The weekly injection is known as Sevmia from the Canadian company Apotex and is pharmaceutically equivalent to weight-loss medication Wegovy from Denmark’s Novo Nordisk. <\/p>\n

Health Canada says Sevmia can be prescribed to people 12 years of age and over, as a supplement to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for weight management. <\/p>\n

It’s the third generic semaglutide medication approved by the department, though the first two were authorized for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes in adults. <\/p>\n

Generic versions of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic by India-based Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Apotex were approved earlier this year. At the time, Apotex said its generic would be approximately one-third the price of Ozempic. <\/p>\n

Health Canada says it’s reviewing six other submissions for generic semaglutide from different companies and expects to make more decisions in the coming weeks and months. <\/p>\n

According to the pricing structure of the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, when two generic medications enter the market, they are at least 50 per cent cheaper than the brand name \u2014 but companies can price them lower. <\/p>\n

Experts have previously estimated the cost of Wegovy to be around $400 a month, though prices can vary by dose and location. <\/p>\n

“The availability of generic drugs is expected to have a positive impact in Canada, including potential cost savings for patients and the health-care system,” the federal agency said in a news release Monday. <\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2026. <\/p>\n

The Canadian Press <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – A dosage of Wegovy, March 1, 2024 in Front Royal, Va. (AP Photo\/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File) –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[329680,64,63,311498,137,150712,490,5889,101134,20165,12728],"class_list":["post-775827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-apotex","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-generic-version","tag-health","tag-health-canada","tag-medication","tag-novo-nordisk","tag-the-canadian-press","tag-wegovy","tag-weight-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}