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, FDA-approved for chronic weight management, cardiovascular risk reduction, and (new in 2026) 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 — new to the 2026 FDA label — 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 the brand-name formulation of semaglutide FDA-approved for type 2 diabetes management, though it has become widely prescribed off-label for weight loss. It is available in doses of 0.5mg, 1mg, and 2mg weekly, and is manufactured by Novo Nordisk. Ozempic also carries an FDA indication to reduce cardiovascular risk in adults with type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
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Mounjaro
Mounjaro
Mounjaro is the brand-name formulation of tirzepatide FDA-approved for type 2 diabetes, manufactured by Eli Lilly. It is prescribed weekly by injection and has become extremely popular off-label for weight loss given its superior efficacy data. Like Ozempic, Mounjaro is often prescribed for weight management while awaiting broader obesity indications.
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Zepbound
Zepbound
Zepbound is the brand-name formulation of tirzepatide 2.5–15mg specifically FDA-approved for chronic weight management, launched by Eli Lilly in late 2023. 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 no food or water restrictions, 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 12.4% mean weight loss versus 0.9% on placebo.
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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 multi-dose pre-filled pen and is manufactured by Novo Nordisk. Saxenda has since been overtaken in efficacy by the once-weekly drugs that followed it — 2021 brought Wegovy (semaglutide 2.4 mg), 2023 Zepbound (tirzepatide) — the head-to-head STEP-8 trial showed semaglutide 2.4 mg produced 15.8% mean weight loss versus 6.4% with liraglutide 3.0 mg over 68 weeks. It still retains distinct clinical niches: it is the only GLP-1 with an FDA pediatric weight-management indication, and its short 13-hour half-life makes it preferred for patients planning pregnancy who need a rapid washout.
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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 an oral tablet — the first GLP-1 receptor agonist in any oral form to reach the market, approved September 20, 2019. Its approval covers glycemic control in adults who have type 2 diabetes, and the dose is one tablet daily, taken on an empty stomach. Rybelsus is manufactured by Novo Nordisk and is the same semaglutide molecule used in injectable Ozempic and Wegovy, but reformulated with an absorption enhancer (SNAC) that allows the peptide to cross the stomach lining intact.
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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 and is currently marketed by Currax Pharmaceuticals (the U.S. SPL labeler of record is Nalpropion Pharmaceuticals LLC, a Currax subsidiary). 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 (~22.5%), 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 December 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 September 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.