Drug Guides
Every GLP-1 on the market, one page each: what its FDA label authorizes, what it costs through each channel, how it is titrated, and who will actually sell it to you. New to these drugs? Start with GLP-1 drugs explained.
Semaglutide
Ozempic • Wegovy • Rybelsus
Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist carrying two separate FDA approvals: one for managing type 2 diabetes, one for chronic weight management. It has become one of the most prescribed medications in the United States, with clinical trials demonstrating weight loss of up to 15% of body weight.
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Tirzepatide
Mounjaro • Zepbound
Tirzepatide is a first-in-class dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist that activates two incretin hormone pathways simultaneously. It reaches the market under two names — Mounjaro carries the type 2 diabetes approval, Zepbound the chronic weight management one — and it has beaten semaglutide on weight loss in head-to-head trials.
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Wegovy
Wegovy
Wegovy is the brand-name formulation of semaglutide, approved for long-term weight management, for lowering cardiovascular risk, and (since August 2025) for treating noncirrhotic MASH with liver fibrosis. Developed by Novo Nordisk, it is available as a once-weekly subcutaneous injection (0.25–2.4 mg, or up to 7.2 mg Wegovy HD for weight reduction) and, since December 2025, a once-daily oral tablet, 1.5–25 mg, carrying the adult weight reduction and cardiovascular risk reduction indications.
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Ozempic
Ozempic
Ozempic is Novo Nordisk's brand of semaglutide for type 2 diabetes. It comes as a once-weekly injection (0.25 mg to start, then 0.5, 1 or 2 mg) and, since May 4, 2026, as Ozempic tablets taken once a day (1.5, 4 or 9 mg), which replace Rybelsus in the US. It is widely prescribed off-label for weight loss. The injection's label also names two protective uses in type 2 diabetes: fewer major heart events in people who already have heart disease, and slower loss of kidney function, with fewer kidney failures and cardiovascular deaths, in people with chronic kidney disease. The tablets carry the heart-event use, for adults at high risk, but not the kidney one.
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Mounjaro
Mounjaro
Mounjaro is Eli Lilly's brand of tirzepatide, a once-weekly shot. Its label covers blood-sugar control in type 2 diabetes from age 10 up, plus fewer major heart events (heart attack, stroke, cardiovascular death) for diabetic adults whose risk of them is high. Weight loss is not on that label: Lilly sells the same molecule for weight as Zepbound, though some doctors still write Mounjaro off-label for it.
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Zepbound
Zepbound
Zepbound is the brand-name formulation of tirzepatide 2.5–15mg that Eli Lilly launched in late 2023 for long-term weight management. In 2024 its label gained a second use: treating moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea when an adult also has obesity. It is chemically identical to Mounjaro but approved specifically for obesity treatment, making it eligible for different insurance coverage pathways and savings programs.
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Foundayo
Foundayo
Foundayo (orforglipron) was the first small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist to win FDA approval in an oral once-daily form for chronic weight management. That approval landed on April 1, 2026. One tablet a day, with or without food, marking a major change from injectable GLP-1s and from oral semaglutide (Rybelsus), which has strict food and water rules. In the 72-week ATTAIN-1 phase 3 trial, the highest dose produced 11.1% mean weight loss versus 2.1% on placebo (FDA label, all randomized patients).
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Saxenda
Saxenda
Saxenda is liraglutide 3.0 mg under its brand name, and it was the first of the GLP-1 receptor agonists to earn an FDA chronic weight management approval in adults (December 23, 2014) and later for adolescents aged 12 and older (December 4, 2020). It is a once-daily subcutaneous injection delivered through a single-patient-use pre-filled pen and is manufactured by Novo Nordisk. The once-weekly drugs that followed it, Wegovy (semaglutide 2.4 mg) in 2021 and Zepbound (tirzepatide) in 2023, have since overtaken it on weight loss. In the head-to-head STEP-8 trial, semaglutide 2.4 mg produced 15.8% mean weight loss versus 6.4% with liraglutide 3.0 mg over 68 weeks. It was the first GLP-1 approved for weight management in adolescents (12 and older, December 2020); Wegovy injection followed in December 2022. Novo Nordisk is discontinuing Saxenda: the FDA drug shortage list says it will be available until January 2027.
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Trulicity
Trulicity
Trulicity is the brand-name formulation of dulaglutide, a once-weekly subcutaneous GLP-1 receptor agonist. The FDA has approved it on two counts, both confined to type 2 diabetes in adults: glycemic control, and cardiovascular risk reduction where the patient already has established cardiovascular disease or several cardiovascular risk factors. Manufactured by Eli Lilly, Trulicity was the first GLP-1 to show a CV benefit in a primary-prevention diabetes population (REWIND, 2019). It has never had an obesity indication — average weight loss in trials is modest at roughly 3–5 kg — and Wegovy and Zepbound dominate the chronic weight management category.
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Rybelsus
Rybelsus
Rybelsus is semaglutide in a once-daily tablet, the first GLP-1 receptor agonist approved in oral form (September 20, 2019), for adults with type 2 diabetes. In the US it is being discontinued: on June 4, 2026 the FDA listed the 3 mg, 7 mg and 14 mg tablets as discontinued, to be replaced by Ozempic tablets, a reformulated version of the same medicine in 1.5 mg, 4 mg and 9 mg strengths that went on sale on May 4, 2026. Pharmacies may still dispense remaining Rybelsus stock, and Novo Nordisk says Rybelsus will still be sold outside the US. Both names share one FDA label, and the label warns they are not substitutable milligram for milligram: Rybelsus 7 mg corresponds to Ozempic tablets 4 mg, and 14 mg to 9 mg. The molecule is the one in injectable Ozempic and Wegovy, combined with an absorption enhancer (SNAC) that lets the peptide cross the stomach lining.
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Contrave
Contrave
Contrave is a fixed-dose oral combination of naltrexone HCl 8 mg (an opioid receptor antagonist) and bupropion HCl 90 mg (a dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) formulated as an extended-release tablet for chronic weight management. It was FDA-approved September 10, 2014. Azurity Pharmaceuticals acquired Contrave in June 2026 and is now the application holder at FDA. The current DailyMed label still names Nalpropion Pharmaceuticals LLC as labeler and Currax Pharmaceuticals as distributor. No GLP-1 receptor is involved. Contrave works in the brain instead, on appetite-regulating hypothalamic neurons and on the mesolimbic dopamine reward circuit. Average weight loss in the pivotal COR trials at the 32 mg / 360 mg daily maintenance dose was roughly 4-5% body weight at 56 weeks placebo-subtracted, substantially less than GLP-1s like Wegovy (~14.9%) or Zepbound (~20.9%), positioning Contrave as a lower-cost option for patients who cannot tolerate GLP-1 gastrointestinal side effects or who have co-occurring nicotine or alcohol use disorder where bupropion or naltrexone may offer secondary benefit.
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Qsymia
Qsymia
Qsymia is a fixed-dose oral combination of phentermine (a sympathomimetic amine appetite suppressant) and topiramate extended-release (an anticonvulsant also used for migraine prophylaxis) developed by VIVUS LLC and FDA-approved July 17, 2012 for chronic weight management. A pediatric indication for patients aged 12 years and older was added in June 2022, making Qsymia one of the few weight-loss medications approved in adolescents. It is not a GLP-1 receptor agonist — it works through central appetite suppression and modulation of GABA/glutamate signaling rather than incretin pathways. Dispensing runs through a REMS — a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy — and nothing else, on account of teratogenicity risk (topiramate causes cleft palate in first-trimester exposures) and a suicidality warning carried over from topiramate's antiepileptic class label. Because phentermine is a Schedule IV controlled substance, prescriptions are subject to DEA limits, and Qsymia capsules cannot be called in indefinitely.
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Editorial guides
The pages above stay inside one drug at a time — its label, its price, its sellers. The guides below cut across all of them: how the injections compare, what insurers will and will not fund, and how each state has decided its Medicaid position.
Sources & methodology — as of November 2026
- 1.FDA — Wegovy (semaglutide) Approval History via Drugs@FDA— U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
- 2.FDA — Zepbound (tirzepatide) Approval History via Drugs@FDA— U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
- 3.FDA — Ozempic (semaglutide) Prescribing Information via Drugs@FDA— U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
- 4.FDA — Mounjaro (tirzepatide) Prescribing Information via Drugs@FDA— U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
- 5.FDA — Rybelsus (oral semaglutide) Prescribing Information via Drugs@FDA— U.S. Food & Drug Administration.