Since they debuted, injectable GLP-1 medicine like Ozempic have been in excessive demand. Along with treating diabetes and weight problems, these medicines have cardiovascular advantages, and there’s proof they could curb dependancy and probably even shield towards some kinds of most cancers, which has solely additional broadened their attraction. However for individuals who hate needles, these medicines maintain a evident, apparent disadvantage: They require taking a weekly shot.
Now, although, on platforms like Instagram and Fb, advertisements for oral knock-off variations of GLP-1 medicine are proliferating. After the brand-name GLP-1 medicine went into scarcity in 2022, a booming trade of “compounding” pharmacies and telehealth clinics arose to supply copies of the medicines, as they’re legally permitted to do when shortages exist. However in contrast to the pharma giants that produce the originals, these digital clinics and specialty pharmacies are providing variations of semaglutide and tirzepatide for weight reduction which might be taken by mouth. They provide lozenges, tablets, tablets, cheek gels, drops, and dissolving strips, promising to ship the identical lively elements because the trademark medicines with out the injections.
It’s an interesting prospect—particularly since these medicine are provided at a fraction of the worth of their name-brand counterparts and are sometimes shipped in a single day after a potential affected person fills out a fast on-line questionnaire. A month’s provide of semaglutide lozenges with vitamin B6 added from the telehealth startup Strut, for instance, prices $149 with out insurance coverage, versus Wegovy’s $1,000-plus price ticket.
“As a pharmacist, I can recognize the thrill within the rise in oral semaglutide, since it’s a better route than injectables,” says Melinda Lee, a pharmacist who runs the pharmaceutical packaging firm Parcel Well being in addition to a GLP-1 drug availability database. Oral variations additionally don’t should be refrigerated like injectables, which makes them simpler to ship and retailer. However though she understands the passion, Lee stays skeptical. Whereas taking a drug by mouth is likely to be extra interesting than a needle, with regards to GLP-1s, the proof that they’re as efficient simply isn’t there but, she says.
In contrast to the brand-name medicine Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, compounded variations haven’t been rigorously examined in scientific trials, they usually’re not permitted by the Meals and Drug Administration. And though by legislation they need to comprise the identical lively ingredient because the drug they mimic, these orally formulated medicines might not work almost in addition to the injectable medicine.
Maria Daniela Hurtado Andrade, an weight problems specialist on the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, says she doesn’t advocate oral compounded GLP-1 medicines to her sufferers. “I don’t contemplate them, I don’t prescribe them, and I don’t endorse them,” she says.
