People currently treated privately with a 2.4mg Wegovy injection once a week can move straight to 25mg tablets once per day, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said.<\/p>\n
The drug is given on prescription and will be available privately within weeks. It has not yet been assessed for use on the NHS.<\/p>\n
Julian Beach, executive director of healthcare quality and access at the MHRA, said: \u201cHaving met the MHRA\u2019s rigorous standards of safety, quality and effectiveness, the semaglutide tablet has been approved in the UK for weight loss and weight management.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wegovy tablet, made by Novo Nordisk, should be taken whole on an empty stomach with a sip of water after a fasting period of at least eight hours.<\/p>\n
No food or drink should then be taken for at least 30 minutes, otherwise the way the drug is absorbed by the body can be affected.<\/p>\n
The MHRA has approved the drug based on data from a trial where adults were given 25mg per day in addition to diet and exercise.<\/p>\n
After 64 weeks, adults taking the pill lost an average of 17% of body weight if they remained on treatment, compared with 3% for people on a dummy drug.<\/p>\n
When all participants were included \u2013 regardless of if they remained on treatment \u2013 the average weight loss was 14%.<\/p>\n
The most common side-effects of the medicine are gastrointestinal such as nausea, diarrhoea, constipation and vomiting.<\/p>\n
Sebnem Avsar Tuna, general manager at Novo Nordisk, said: \u201cThis marks an important milestone for obesity care in the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time, people living with obesity have access to a GLP-1 treatment in a daily pill, allowing them the choice and flexibility of oral treatment to support their long-term weight management.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Naveed Sattar, from the University of Glasgow, said: \u201cThe approval of the once-daily oral form of Wegovy (semaglutide) is welcome news for people living with obesity, particularly those who would prefer not to use injections.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpanding the range of effective treatments is important in helping people sustainably reduce caloric intakes within an increasingly obesogenic environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith obesity rates in the UK now at very high levels, and associated with substantial multimorbidity, additional treatment options for sustained weight loss are greatly needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
James O\u2019Loan, chief executive of Chemist4U, said: \u201cThe launch of oral weight loss medications is set to be game-changing for UK patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already seen record demand ahead of the expected launch of a Wegovy pill in the coming months, with over 10,000 people joining our waiting list for a consultation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotably, the majority of people expressing interest in the launch of weight loss pills have not previously used GLP-1s, indicating that the launch could widen access to millions of people across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeight loss pills are a great alternative for people who don\u2019t feel comfortable using injections and many will find that a daily pill feels more familiar and easier to fit into their routine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect that demand for weight loss pills will only increase as prospective patients become aware of them in the coming weeks and months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Kieran Seyan, chief medical officer at Pharmacy2U, welcomed the news.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAs public interest in medicated weight management grows, it is increasingly important that patients use reputable clinical services rather than unregulated online sources or counterfeit products.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People currently treated privately with a 2.4mg Wegovy injection once a week can move straight to 25mg tablets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[102,6591,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-635911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}