People who are squeamish about needles for administering GLP-1 weight-loss drugs will soon have an alternative, as the Food and Drug Administration has approved a pill version of Wegovy that could be available as soon as next month.

Novo Nordisk announced on Monday that it has received FDA approval for its once-daily pill, which has been shown to achieve comparable weight-loss results as the injectable version of Wegovy. The Danish drugmaker said the pill could launch in the U.S. in early January, while it is still awaiting approval from regulatory authorities elsewhere.

The news marks a new era for the spate of popular weight-loss drugs. While there is a 14-milligram semaglutide pill by Novo Nordisk currently on the market (the diabetes drug Rybelsus), the Wegovy pill will be made available in a higher dose of 25 milligrams. There’s not yet a pill version of Ozempic, also made by Novo Nordisk. 

“As the first oral GLP-1 treatment for........

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