Weight loss drug Wegovy to be sold on prescription

Weight loss drug Wegovy is to be available on prescription in France with immediate effect, but it will not be reimbursed by state health insurance – at least, for now.

Wegovy is the brand name for semaglutide, a GLP-1 agonist drug, which has hit headlines (along with Ozempic) in recent years for its use in weight loss.

Availability confirmed in France

Manufacturer Novo Nordisk confirmed on October 8 that Wegovy would be available in France on prescription with immediate effect, but only:

• Without state reimbursement
• Within a strict framework outlined by French medicine safety agency ANSM (Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé).

The ANSM has also said that the first prescription for the treatment will only be available from an endocrinology-diabetology-nutrition specialist. Renewals can be handled by a GP.

It will also only be available to people who:

• Have already tried to lose weight in the usual ways, and have tried nutritional therapy already
• Also follow a low-calorie diet and increase their physical activity to promote weight loss, alongside the use of the drug
• Have a BMI greater than 35
• Are aged under 65

The ANSM said it would only condone the use of a GLP-1 drug “for the treatment of obesity”, and said that it was seeking to prevent the drug’s “misuse for cosmetic purposes” by people who do not have weight-related health problems.

“We hope that this arrival will enable many French patients to follow a treatment pathway that includes a low-calorie diet and increased physical activity, which are still essential,” said Etienne Tichit, managing director of Novo Nordisk’s French subsidiary, to the AFP.

What is Wegovy?

Wegovy has the same active ingredient (semaglutide) as Ozempic, and both are manufactured by Danish laboratory Novo Nordisk. It works by mimicking an intestinal hormone that stimulates insulin secretion, and makes you feel full. It also slows digestion, so people feel fuller for longer after eating.

It is administered by injection, in doses that start small and gradually increase in a bid to reduce side effects (which can be severe). In contrast to Ozempic, however, Wegovy delivers a higher quantity of the active ingredient and is designed primarily to help weight loss, rather than diabetes management.

The drug has hit controversy because sometimes people who are already slim – including celebrities in the public eye – have reportedly used it to promote more extreme weight loss.

Cost of Wegovy

Wegovy will be the second drug of its kind available in France, after Saxenda (liraglutide). Neither will be reimbursed by the state healthcare Assurance maladie – at least, at first.

Novo Nordisk’s French subsidiary has estimated the price of Wegovy treatment at “between €9 and €12 per day”. This means that it will cost patients at least €270 per month, and as much as €370+ for some.

Already, 10,000 people with obesity have had early access to Wegovy in France, Novo Nordisk has said. They were granted access as part of an early access scheme that allows innovative treatments to be made available more than a year before they are officially marketed.

These patients were initially set to have free access to Wegovy until the end of October 2024, but the measure will now be extended to “the end of January 2025”, so that the 7,000 patients still on a treatment plan are not “left without a solution”, the company said.

However, it is highly unlikely that price negotiations on the drug will have concluded by January. Negotiations with health products economics committee the CEPS (Comité économique des produits de santé) are ongoing.

Wegovy is due to be re-evaluated by the end of 2024, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) has said, stating in December 2022 that its “opinion is conditional on the re-evaluation of Wegovy within a maximum of two years”.

The new re-evaluation is set to take into account new results from a Phase III study, which showed that obese and overweight people who take this drug may see a reduced risk of cardiovascular problems (heart attacks, strokes, and even cancer).

Side effects

Wegovy was authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) at the beginning of 2022 for the management of obesity in adults. It has been approved for the same reason in adolescents aged over 12, since 2023.

The drug can help people lose 12.4% more weight after 68 weeks of treatment, in comparison to normal weight loss methods, the ANSM has said.

However, common side effects include nausea, diarrhoea, burping and intestinal discomfort, and vomiting.

Obesity now affects more than a billion people worldwide, according to a study published in March in the British medical journal The Lancet.