Wegovy pill: what the label says

The Wegovy pill is Wegovy tablets: once-daily oral semaglutide, approved by the FDA on December 22, 2025. Its label covers adults only, for long-term weight reduction with obesity, or overweight plus a weight-related condition, and to lower the risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with cardiovascular disease and obesity or overweight. You take one each morning on an empty stomach with up to 4 ounces of plain water, then wait at least 30 minutes before eating, drinking or taking other pills.

It’s the same medicine as the semaglutide in Wegovy injection, in a different form with its own strengths, schedule and rules. It isn’t interchangeable with Rybelsus or Ozempic tablets. Everything below comes from the FDA label and the trial behind it; your prescriber decides whether it’s right for you and at what dose.

What it’s approved for

The label gives Wegovy tablets two uses, with a reduced-calorie diet and more physical activity (Wegovy label, section 1):

• “to reduce the risk of major adverse CV events (CV death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, or non-fatal stroke) in adults with established CV disease and either obesity or overweight”;
• “to reduce excess body weight and maintain weight reduction long term in adults with obesity, or in adults with overweight in the presence of at least one weight-related comorbid condition.”

That’s narrower than the injection. The tablets are for adults only, with no MASH (liver) use, and the label says their safety hasn’t been established in children or in people with MASH (section 6.1). It also says using Wegovy, tablets or injection, “with other semaglutide-containing products or with any other GLP-1 receptor agonist is not recommended” (section 1).

Strengths and what’s in the tablet

All four are “white to light yellow” and debossed with the strength and “novo” (sections 3 and 16). Besides semaglutide, each tablet contains magnesium stearate and salcaprozate sodium (SNAC). The label says SNAC “facilitates the absorption of semaglutide,” which happens mostly in the stomach (sections 11 and 12.3).

How to take it

1. First thing in the morning, on an empty stomach

   “Take one WEGOVY tablet orally once daily on an empty stomach in the morning with water (up to 4 ounces).”

2. Water only

   “Do not take WEGOVY tablets with other liquids besides water.” Swallow it whole: “Do not split, crush, chew or dissolve in any solution.”

3. Wait 30 minutes

   “After taking a WEGOVY tablet, wait at least 30 minutes before eating food, drinking beverages or taking other oral medications.”

4. One a day, no more

   “Do not take more than one tablet per day.” If you miss one, “skip the missed dose and take the next dose the following day.”

Source: Wegovy label, sections 2.1 and 2.4.

The rules come from how little of the tablet is absorbed: about 1% to 2%, against 89% for the injection (section 12.3). In the label’s studies, absorption was higher with 50 mL of water than with 240 mL, and higher after a longer fast once the tablet was taken; 50 mL and 120 mL made no clinically significant difference. The tablet can also raise levothyroxine levels: in one study, exposure went up 33% (section 7.2), so tell your prescriber if you take thyroid medicine.

Store the bottle at 68°F to 77°F (20°C to 25°C), with excursions allowed from 59°F to 86°F, and keep the tablets in the original bottle “to protect tablets from moisture” (section 16). No refrigerator needed.

The dose schedule on the label

The label steps up every 30 days to a 25 mg maintenance dose, for both uses (section 2.3, Table 2):

“If patients do not tolerate a dose during dosage escalation, consider delaying dosage escalation.” And “If patients do not tolerate the 25 mg once daily maintenance dosage, consider switching to WEGOVY injection 1.7 mg once weekly” (Wegovy label, section 2.3). This is what the label states, not a plan for you. Follow your prescriber.

Wegovy pill vs Wegovy injection

Source: Wegovy label, sections 1, 2, 8.2, 12.3 and 16.

In people without type 2 diabetes, the label says average semaglutide blood levels on 25 mg tablets daily and on 2.4 mg injection weekly “were similar”; in people with type 2 diabetes, levels on the tablets “were lower” (section 8.6). Either way, semaglutide’s half-life is about 1 week, and it stays in the blood for about 5 to 7 weeks after the last 25 mg tablet or 2.4 mg injection (section 12.3).

The label also covers switching. From injection: people on Wegovy 2.4 mg “may switch to WEGOVY 25 mg tablets,” starting “one week after discontinuing WEGOVY 2.4 mg injection.” From tablets: start the 2.4 mg injection “the day after discontinuing WEGOVY tablets 25 mg” (section 2.5). Your prescriber manages any switch. If you use the injection, how many units is 2.4 mg of semaglutide covers how its devices measure the dose.

Wegovy pill vs Rybelsus and Ozempic tablets

Rybelsus and Ozempic tablets are also oral semaglutide, taken the same way (empty stomach, up to 4 ounces of water, 30-minute wait), but they’re separate products on their own label, for adults with type 2 diabetes: to improve blood sugar and to lower the risk of major cardiovascular events in those at high risk (Rybelsus and Ozempic tablets label, sections 1 and 2.1). Their strengths are 3, 7 and 14 mg (Rybelsus) and 1.5, 4 and 9 mg (Ozempic tablets) (section 3).

Matching numbers don’t make matching products. That label says “RYBELSUS and OZEMPIC tablets are not substitutable on a mg-to-mg basis” (section 2.1), and neither it nor the Wegovy label gives a way to switch between Wegovy tablets and either of them. The Wegovy label advises against combining Wegovy with any other semaglutide product. Only your prescriber can manage a change.

The trial behind it: OASIS 4

The label’s weight evidence for the tablets is Study 7, OASIS 4: a 64-week trial of 307 adults with obesity (BMI 30 or more) or overweight (BMI 27 to 29.9) and at least one weight-related condition. People with type 2 diabetes were excluded. The dose was raised to 25 mg over 12 weeks, then held for 52 weeks. Over the trial, 18% of people on the tablets and 25.5% on placebo stopped the study drug (Wegovy label, section 14.2):

The label puts the difference from placebo at 11.2 percentage points. The published paper reports the placebo change as −2.2% and the difference as 11.4 points, with gastrointestinal adverse events in 74.0% of people on the tablets and 42.2% on placebo (NEJM, OASIS 4).

Read it with its limits: one trial, 64 weeks, about 300 people, no one with type 2 diabetes, funded by Novo Nordisk. The injection’s trials were separate studies, so their figures aren’t a head-to-head comparison.

Side effects and warnings

For the tablets, the label says “the types and frequency of common adverse reactions were similar” to the injection’s. Across Wegovy, the most common (5% or more) include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain, dysesthesia (altered skin sensation), headache, fatigue, dyspepsia, dizziness, bloating, burping, low blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, flatulence, gastroenteritis, reflux and hair loss (section 6).

Specific to the tablet trial (section 6.1, 5.3):

• Stopping for side effects: 6.9% on the tablets vs 5.9% on placebo.
• Severe gastrointestinal reactions: 2% vs 0%.
• Dysesthesia: 5% vs 0%.
• Gallstones: 2.5% vs 1%.

The tablets carry the same boxed warning as the injection: semaglutide causes thyroid C-cell tumors in rodents, and it’s unknown whether it does in humans. Wegovy is contraindicated with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or with MEN 2. Other label warnings include pancreatitis (“persistent or severe abdominal pain (sometimes radiating to the back)”), gallbladder disease, low blood sugar with insulin or similar drugs, kidney injury from fluid loss, severe gastrointestinal reactions, allergic reactions, diabetic eye complications, a raised heart rate and aspiration under anesthesia or deep sedation (sections 4 and 5).

On pregnancy, the label says Wegovy “may cause fetal harm,” to stop it when pregnancy is recognized, and to stop “at least 2 months before” a planned pregnancy. Breastfeeding “is not recommended” during treatment with the tablets, because of possible SNAC build-up in the infant (sections 8.1 to 8.3).

Questions people ask