People who were obese or overweight shed an average of 16.6 percent of their body weight following 64 weeks on the 25-milligram GLP-1 pill, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk announced Wednesday. A group who took a placebo pill only lost 2.7 percent during the same time frame. <\/p>\n
More than a third of the 307 adult patients in the trial lost 20 percent of their body weight or more if they if they stuck to the recommended treatment plan. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was comparable with previous trial results of injectable Wegovy,\u201d Novo Nordisk said in a statement<\/a>, noting that people taking its pill were able to be more active and improve their cardiovascular health.<\/p>\n Even participants who may not have taken the pill exactly as instructed lost an average of 13.6 percent of their body weight, compared with 2.2 percent for those on the placebo pill. Nearly a third of that group also saw weight loss of more than 20 percent, versus 3.3 percent for the placebo.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n A Wegovy weight loss pill has successfully helped people lose up to 20 percent of their body weight (Getty Images\/iStock)<\/p>\n Introducing a pill form of Wegovy could make the weight loss drug more accessible for those who prefer to take medication orally. <\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how much such a pill would cost, but Novo Nordisk\u2019s Ozempic and Wegovy shots currently go for several hundred dollars each month, out of pocket<\/a>. <\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the only pill in the works, and a previous trial from Novo Nordisk\u2019s American competitor Eli Lilly<\/a> found its experimental weight loss pill wasn\u2019t as potent as shots currently on the market<\/a>.<\/p>\n Eli Lilly also released results Wednesday<\/a>, saying its pill, orforglipron,<\/a> helped reduce blood sugar levels and body weight. The pill was compared with oral doses of semaglutide, which is the active ingredient in Wegovy\u2019s pill. <\/p>\n Both GLP-1 weight loss pills come with significant side effects similar to the shots, such as nausea and vomiting, leading some people to drop out of their trial.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n The pills come with similar side effects to injectable weight loss drugs (Getty Images\/iStock)<\/p>\n Eli Lilly\u2019s trial included adults with Type 2 diabetes, while Novo Nordisk\u2019s trial did not. <\/p>\n The companies are both vying to corner the market and Novo Nordisk sought approval for its pill with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year. The agency is expected to conclude its review by the end of 2025. <\/p>\n Before that decision, Novo Nordisk said it was readying production at its U.S.-based sites. <\/p>\n \u201cPending FDA approval, ample supply will be available to meet the expected U.S. demand as we hope to set a new treatment benchmark for oral weight loss medications for people with overweight or obesity,\u201d Martin Holst Lange, Novo Nordisk\u2019s chief scientific officer, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[97,243],"class_list":{"0":"post-168423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/iStock-1398230388.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/iStock-2190382180.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n