We're Getting Closer to Edible GLP-1 Drugs Being Available

Pop quiz: would you prefer to take a medication as a pill or inject yourself with it? Somehow, I suspect that the vast majority of people would prefer the latter option. As GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic become more popular, it’s easy to imagine a near future where a version of them that can be taken orally would become even more widespread. Last month, for example, Eli Lilly shared the news that its own oral GLP-1 drug, orforglipron, had shown positive results in a Phase 3 clinical trial.

Eli Lilly isn’t the only pharmaceutical company with encouraging news on that front. On Friday, The Wall Street Journal‘s Kelly Cloonan reported that the FDA had accepted an application from Novo Nordisk for a version of Wegovy in pill form. According to the WSJ, the FDA will announce its decision sometime during the fourth quarter of this year. The phase 3 clinical trial results represented 64 weeks’ worth of patient observation.

Not every pharmaceutical company has had encouraging news when it’s come to new GLP-1 medications, however. In mid-April, Pfizer announced that it was ceasing development of danuglipron, a medication designed to be taken twice daily. The company’s announcement stated that “a single asymptomatic participant in one of the dose-optimization studies experienced potential drug-induced liver injury,” which prompted the decision to cease work on the drug.

Scientists Who Pioneered GLP-1 Drugs Honored With Lasker Award

Their work was crucial to the development of Ozempic and similar drugs

In an article for Verywell Health on the potential rise of oral GLP-1 medications, Laura Hensley pointed out another reason why a pill form could be more popular than their injectable counterparts: the lack of a need for refrigeration. Even if GLP-1 pills do become commonplace, one expert cited in Hensley’s article believed injectable versions wouldn’t go away. University of California San Francisco’s Diana Thiara, MD told Verywell Health, “I think there would still be a market for injectables for people who find that easier.”