Semaglutide: the ingredient and the product.

Why do the brand names matter?

For adults who have type 2 diabetes, Ozempic injection had approval to help manage blood sugar as of September 2026. For adults who also have heart or blood-vessel disease, approval covered reducing heart attacks, strokes and deaths from those diseases. For adults who also have long-term kidney disease, it was approved to slow kidney damage. That use also reduces the risk of death from heart or blood-vessel disease.

Wegovy was the semaglutide brand with approval for long-term weight management alongside food and activity changes.

By September 2026, Ozempic and Wegovy names covered both injection and tablet forms. The forms did not have identical approved uses.

Rybelsus is the earlier brand name used for semaglutide tablets to treat type 2 diabetes. As of September 2026, older Rybelsus tablets were being replaced by Ozempic tablets. Ask which tablet name and version the prescriber means.

What did the weight trial show?

In STEP 1, the average loss of body weight over 68 weeks reached 14.9% for semaglutide and 2.4% for the dummy injection. The adults taking part did not have diabetes.

Both groups had regular visits and advice about food and physical activity. Novo Nordisk paid for the trial. An average from that setting is not a promise for an individual.

Ask what progress would mean for your health, rather than treating the trial average as a target.

What belongs in the discussion of risks?

The official Wegovy instructions describe weight trials where 44% felt sick to the stomach. Among people given an injection with no active medicine, 16% felt sick.

The instructions also list vomiting, loose stools (diarrhea), and trouble passing stool (constipation) among common problems.

Rats and mice developed thyroid tumours covered by its boxed warning. Whether semaglutide causes those tumours in humans remains unknown.

The medicine instructions rule out use if you or a family member have had medullary thyroid cancer, a rare type of thyroid cancer. They also rule out use if you have MEN 2, a rare illness passed down in families. Ask about those exact names when checking family health records.

The instructions prohibit use by someone who has previously had a serious allergic reaction to any ingredient, including semaglutide itself.

Discuss pregnancy plans, other medicines, eye disease and surgery during the assessment.