{"id":551466,"date":"2026-03-21T15:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T15:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/551466\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T15:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T15:41:16","slug":"coming-soon-wegovy-hd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/551466\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming Soon: ‘Wegovy HD’"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Federal regulators on Thursday approved a new higher-dose version of the blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy that may help users lose more weight and keep it off. The US Food and Drug Administration approved a 7.2-milligram dose of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide. Previously, the highest approved dose of the drug, taken as a weekly shot, was 2.4 milligrams. The new dose received accelerated review through the FDA’s ultra-fast drug review program, reports the AP<\/a>, with the approval coming 54 days after the request for review was approved. The new dosage will be available in April at pharmacies in the US, with a price to be announced then. European drug regulators approved the higher-dose version of Wegovy in February. \n <\/p>\n

Called Wegovy HD, the higher-dose drug helped participants in a study lose about 19% of their body weight, or almost 47 pounds, versus about 16% of body weight, or 39 pounds, with the lower dose over almost 17 months. The higher dose was developed because while the 2.4-milligram shot is effective, “some individuals do not reach their therapeutic goals” at that dose, according to results published last year in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. The FDA in December approved an oral Wegovy pill. It contains 25 milligrams of semaglutide, the amount needed to ensure the drug is absorbed via the digestive system.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrinologist and obesity expert at Harvard Medical School, welcomed the approval of the higher-dose shot. It “may be especially helpful for people” who are tolerating the lower-dose version, but “have had suboptimal weight loss,” she said. It also could be helpful for people who don’t have a robust response to the highest dose of Eli Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound, she added. Still, side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and constipation were reported in more than 70% of those who took the higher dose of Wegovy, compared to more than 60% taking the lower dose and about 43% taking a dummy medication, the study showed.<\/p>\n


\n And a condition in which people experience unpleasant skin sensations such as burning, stabbing, or a feeling like an electrical shock occurred in about 23% of those taking the higher dose of Wegovy versus 6% of those taking the lower dose and less than 1% in people who received a placebo. Serious adverse events were reported in nearly 7% of those taking the 7.2-milligram dose of the drug in the study, versus about 11% of those taking the 2.4-milligram dose and about 5% of those who received a placebo. Increasing the highest dose of Wegovy from 2.4 milligrams to 7.4 milligrams is “quite a big jump,” especially without an intermediate dose, Dushay noted. “It will be important to see if in the real world, versus in a clinical study, side effects are any worse,” she said. \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Federal regulators on Thursday approved a new higher-dose version of the blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy that may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,2714,7453,84,377,5246,13665,13667],"class_list":["post-551466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fda","tag-food-and-drug-administration","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-novo-nordisk","tag-semaglutide","tag-wegovy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}