Rybelsus tablets weight loss (EU)

Description

Rybelsus is an oral medication with the same active ingredient as Wegovy (semaglutide).
While research is limited on Rybelsus’s weight loss effects, it shows promise and may receive FDA-approval for this purpose in short order.
Does Rybelsus cause weight loss?
Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Rybelsus, recently announced they’ve completed a 68-week clinical trial that shows oral semaglutide does indeed cause significant weight loss in those with obesity—at least when taken at high doses.
We’ll talk about dosing in more detail further down in this article, but as a point of reference, typical dosing of Rybelsus ranges from 3 mg to 14 mg daily; the Novo Nordisk trial had participants on 50 mg of the drug. At that dose, participants lost over 17% of their initial body weight, on average.
What about the typical Rybelsus dosing for diabetes treatment?
One study showed that participants on the highest standard dose (14 mg) of oral semaglutide lost an average of 4.4 kg (less than 5% of their body weight) after 52 weeks. People who took a placebo only lost an average of 0.5 kg (0.5% of their body weight).
In other words, Rybelsus does result in weight loss, but the dose makes all the difference.
How does Rybelsus work for weight loss?
Like other GLP-1 medications, Rybelsus delays gastric emptying, meaning it causes food to move more slowly through the digestive tract. This keeps you fuller for longer, decreasing appetite and resulting in weight loss.
Another way it affects weight loss is by doing exactly what its drug class says it does: activating the GLP-1 receptor in the brain. GLP-1 is a natural hormone that does many things in the body, one of which is sending fullness signals to the brain after eating. The natural mechanism kicks into gear for only a few minutes, but taking a GLP-1 receptor agonist drug keeps that signal activated for much longer.
Rybelsus uses
Rybelsus is an oral form of semaglutide, a type of prescription medication called a GLP-1 agonist (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist). It’s approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used alongside diet and exercise to help control blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
This diabetes medication can significantly lower hemoglobin A1C, a test that measures how much glucose is in the blood. People with type 2 diabetes develop insulin resistance, meaning ​​their body does not respond as it should to insulin, which regulates blood glucose. As the cells become more resistant to the hormone, the pancreas produces more insulin to overcome this resistance, but is often unable to keep up with the increased demand.
Rybelsus sends signals to the pancreas to produce more insulin, lowering blood sugar levels.
There are several other GLP-1s on the market—some, like Ozempic and Trulicity, are only approved for diabetes, while others, like Wegovy and Saxenda, are only approved for weight loss. Rybelsus is the only oral GLP-1 (all the others are injectable drugs), and as of now, it’s only being used for diabetes.