Daily Pill Shows Promise for Weight Loss, Offering Choice to Injections
New York, NY – A daily oral pill, orforglipron, is showing notable promise as a treatment for obesity, potentially expanding access to medication for those unable or unwilling to use injections, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. A separate study also indicates a daily pill form of semaglutide is safe and effective for weight loss.
Currently, many GLP-1 based medications – a class of drugs used to treat obesity – require subcutaneous injection, which can be a barrier to treatment initiation and adherence for some patients.The orforglipron trial involved a large, multinational cohort, including over 35 percent male enrollment.
Researchers found that participants taking orforglipron experienced notable weight loss. Tho, the study acknowledges limitations including a lack of comparison with currently approved obesity-management medications and the use of BMI inclusion criteria developed in White populations, potentially excluding individuals with lower BMIs who may still be at risk due to body fat. The increasing availability of other obesity medications could also influence treatment adherence and efficacy.
Novo Nordisk, the developer of the injectable Ozempic, released findings from a separate study involving 205 participants with obesity who took an oral semaglutide pill for 64 weeks, compared to 102 participants receiving a placebo. The semaglutide group lost an average of 13 percent of their body weight, while the placebo group lost 2.2 percent. Gastrointestinal issues, such as nausea and indigestion, were more common in the semaglutide group, but were generally mild to moderate. Researchers suggest this pill could be an effective alternative for those unable to use injectable drugs. The semaglutide trial utilized a 25mg dose, a reduction from a previous 50mg dose used in an initial trial.
“The new findings could mean an expansion of obesity interventions to groups who are currently excluded due to the cost of and lack of access to injectable medications,” stated Dr. Wharton in a press statement.
Neither orforglipron nor the oral semaglutide pill have yet been approved by the US Food and Drug Governance (FDA) or similar agencies worldwide.
Reference:
Wharton, S., Aronne, L. J., Stefanski, A.,Alfaris,N. F., Ciudin, A., Yokote, K., Halpern, B., Shukla, A. P.,Zhou,C., Macpherson, L., Allen, S. E., Ahmad, N.N., & Klise, S. R. (2025). Orforglipron, an Oral Small-Molecule GLP-1 Receptor Agonist for Obesity Treatment. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2511774
