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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Ozempic and Rybelsus both treat diabetes and cause weight loss, but Ozempic is given as an injection and Rybelsus is taken as a pill.Tanja Ivanova/Getty ImagesPeople can’t stop talking about semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy), the buzzy diabetes and weight loss drug. Ozempic and Wegovy are injectable medications: Users prick themselves with a preloaded syringe once per week. But while the popularity of Ozempic has led to shortages, there’s been much less hype for Rybelsus, an oral form of semaglutide — the exact same drug.What Is Rybelsus?Rybelsus is essentially Ozempic in the form of a pill rather than an injection. Ozempic and Rybelsus are made by the same manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, and have the same active ingredient, semaglutide. Semaglutide, when sold under the brand name Ozempic, is intended for people with type 2 diabetes. The same drug is also sold as Wegovy for the treatment of obesity.Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, a type of drug that mimics the effect of a hormone that stimulates insulin secretion and prompts feelings of fullness. Semaglutide was originally developed and approved to treat type 2 diabetes, and it remains a powerful glucose-lowering therapy, it also has a profound effect on body weight. Many semaglutide users find themselves losing weight without having to consciously cut calories.Rybelsus is the only approved oral form of semaglutide. It’s a daily pill, and it has been shown to result in clinically significant weight loss and blood sugar improvements, both alone and in combination with other diabetes drugs.Diabetes 101: What Is Ozempic?Next up video playing in 10 secondsRybelsus appears to be just as potent as Ozempic, but there’s a catch: It is only available in smaller doses.According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the maximum 14 milligram (mg) daily dose of Rybelsus is equivalent to the 0.5 mg weekly starter dose of Ozempic — one can be switched for the other without the need for a dose adjustment. (Rybelsus uses higher amounts of semaglutide than Ozempic, because only a fraction of the semaglutide that enters the stomach is properly absorbed.)Clinical trials show that the two doses have a comparable metabolic effect: Rybelsus 14 mg daily pillOzempic 0.5 mg weekly injection1.3 percentage point drop in A1C1.3 percentage point drop in A1C10 pounds weight loss9.5 pounds weight lossA study of real-world data found similar results: Oral semaglutide demonstrated “similar effectiveness” to injectable semaglutide.While these results suggest that Rybelsus and Ozempic could
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