Like its predecessor Ozempic, weight management with Wegovy has become a focus of significant attention in medical journals and the public media due to its effectiveness in promoting weight loss. Since we added it to our inventory, we have received a lot of positive feedback from our customers, many of which read like thank-you notes, expressing gratitude for access to a more affordable purchasing option for a medication that has given them powerfully quick and easy results.
Indeed, Wegovy has received global praise from many. Numerous personal success stories of its impact have been published on some popular websites devoted to sharing the good news. They are personal success stories from people who have battled in the past with many of the supposedly sure-fire weight-loss programs involving radical diet and exercise programs that either failed to produce any meaningful results or whose gains were quickly reversed as soon as the program was stopped.
One story came from a customer, in which she tells of how she had struggled with her weight for years despite trying various diets and exercise regimens. When Ozempic started to pick up steam as more than just a wonder drug for treating type 2 diabetes, she approached her health insurers for approval, but they denied her request. Regulations at that time prohibited the prescription of Ozempic to non-diabetic patients. Buying Ozempic from a US pharmacy was around $1100 monthly, sadly, past her budget. She purchased compounded semaglutide from us, and she experienced a remarkable transformation, losing over 30 pounds (13 kilos) in just a few months. She reported feeling more energized, healthier, and more confident than ever before.
A similar story came from a man who had been overweight his entire life and was deeply skeptical about new weight loss solutions after having been burned so many times by programs and medications that promised wonders but delivered little. Semaglutide changed his life after he lost around 50 pounds (22 kilos) in the first six months, and that meant he was able to discontinue several treatments for obesity-related health issues. He credits this with significantly improving his quality of life.
What’s the relationship between semaglutide, Ozempic, and Wegovy?
One of the most frequent questions our customer support team gets asked is about the relationship between semaglutide, Ozempic, and Wegovy. We’ll do our best to answer here.
Ozempic and Wegovy are closely related because they are manufactured by the same company (Novo Nordisk) and are based on the same generic drug (semaglutide). However, these medications target specific conditions, and each requires a doctor’s prescription for its intended use; they are not interchangeable.
To understand the fundamentals of Ozempic and Wegovy, let’s dive into the details of the drug semaglutide.
Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA). GLP-1 is a hormone that is released in the gut in response to food, prompting the release of insulin from the pancreas and blocking the release of glucagon. Insulin works to control blood sugar levels after eating. If blood glucose levels fall too low, glucagon is released by the pancreas to counter insulin’s effects. It stimulates the conversion of glycogen stored in the liver to glucose, which can be released into the bloodstream and lower any risk of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia.) The two hormones work in tandem to stabilize blood glucose levels.
Ozempic was a major step forward in treating diabetes since it allowed patients to gain full control over their glucose levels with a single weekly injection. In comparison, most people living with type 2 diabetes needed daily insulin injections or oral medication before Ozempic came out.
What happened after semaglutide reached the market was a revolution. Diabetic patients were reporting significant weight loss almost as soon as they started their course of Ozempic. This led to the manufacturer conducting what came to be known as STEP (Semaglutide Treatment Effect in People with obesity) clinical trials. The last one was conducted with a pool of obese or overweight people with related comorbidities who were not diabetic. The trial group received weekly injections of 2.4 mg of semaglutide for comparison against a matching control group getting placebos.
It established clearly that participants getting semaglutide achieved an average weight loss of 17-18% of their body weight by the end of the 68-week trial. Just as impressive was that the weight was being shed in an almost straight line for more than three years, showing none of the classic plateaus characteristic of almost every other weight-loss program. On average, people on the program had lost 8% of their starting weight after one year, 12% after two years, and 16% after three years.
These studies underscored semaglutide’s potential as a transformative tool for weight management. The news of this flooded the media, and the race was on for obese people to get their hands on Ozempic. Unhappily, Ozempic became almost a fashion statement. It seemed to become a matter of personal pride for many celebrities to announce to the world that they were getting their bodies “into shape” thanks to Ozempic, even though, by classic standards, most wouldn’t have thought of them as being out of shape, to begin with.
The demand for Ozempic quickly overwhelmed the manufacturer’s production capacity, which had based output capacity on the demand likely to come from a pool of diabetes patients amounting to 9-10% percent of the adult population in Western countries. Instead, the company was facing demand from 40-50% of the population of the advanced countries who are now clinically overweight or obese. Diabetic patients all over the world were unable to get supplies of their essential Ozempic medications, and this was creating serious health consequences for millions of people.
All of this led to the need for a split between drugs based on semaglutide as a treatment for diabetes (Ozempic with a maximum strength of 1 mg) and a separate one for treating obesity (Wegovy with a maximum strength of 2.4 mg.) Wegovy was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in combination with a healthy diet and moderate exercise for people who are overweight (body mass index between 27.0 and 29.9) and having one or more comorbidities or people who are obese (body mass index 30.0 or more).
How does semaglutide work to help manage weight?
The primary mechanism by which weight management with Wegovy works is through appetite suppression. By activating GLP-1 receptors in the brain, semaglutide increases feelings of fullness and reduces hunger, which leads to an overall decrease in caloric intake. Additionally, semaglutide slows gastric emptying, which prolongs the sensation of fullness after eating, and this can help control portion sizes and eating habits.
Questions people ask about Wegovy
What are the main side effects of Wegovy?
There are not any significant differences between the side effects of Wegovy and Ozempic since both are based on semaglutide.
The most common side effects of both are:
- Headaches
- Stomach problems such as diarrhea or constipation, nausea or vomiting, abdominal pain or bloating, gastritis, indigestion, upset stomach and gas (burping), flatulence, reflux or heartburn
- Feeling dizzy, weak, or tired
- Gallstones
- Hair loss
- Injection site reactions.
These effects mainly occur when increasing the dose.
What are the main risks vs benefits of weight management with Wegovy?
Generally, doctors will recommend weight management with Wegovy despite any side effects because, in almost every case, the benefits gained from sustained weight loss outweigh any inherent risks from the medication. Losing weight brings with it multiple benefits because it can reduce the risk inherent in the most prevalent problems that come with obesity, which include heart problems, diabetes, stroke, gallstones, osteoarthritis, and high blood pressure. Some of these are life-threatening.
What pre-existing conditions will prohibit the use of Wegovy?
There are a few conditions that restrict the use of semaglutide-based medication for weight management with Wegovy. These include a family history of a type of thyroid cancer called medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) or if the patient has an endocrine system condition called Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2 (MEN 2).
Certain medical conditions make Wegovy not suitable for everyone. The treating doctor will consider these factors along with overall health before prescribing it. These include problems with the pancreas or kidney, type 2 diabetes and a history of diabetic retinopathy, severe clinical depression, and planned pregnancy or breastfeeding during the period of use.
