Are Ozempic and Wegovy the same drug?

Chemically, yes — both are semaglutide made by Novo Nordisk and injected subcutaneously once a week. Legally they are two different medicines: Ozempic is approved under NDA209637 for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular risk reduction and chronic kidney disease, and Wegovy injection under NDA215256 for weight reduction, cardiovascular risk reduction in obesity or overweight, and noncirrhotic MASH. That distinction is not a technicality. It sets the maximum dose (2 mg against 7.2 mg once weekly), the age from which it can be prescribed, which warnings appear, and what your insurer is being asked to pay for.

What Wegovy dose equals my Ozempic dose?

No label answers that, and this page will not invent an answer. The word "Wegovy" does not appear in the Ozempic label and the word "Ozempic" does not appear in the Wegovy label — not once in either document. The Wegovy label does carry a numbered section on switching between Wegovy injection and Wegovy tablets, which shows it says so explicitly when a switch is authorised. The two ladders happen to share the figures 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg, but those are the first three rungs of a four-rung schedule on one product and of a five-rung schedule on the other, so matching the number does not match the position. If you are changing products, the new label's starting dose and escalation schedule are the only published guidance.

Can I take Ozempic for weight loss?

A physician can lawfully prescribe it for weight, and many do, but it is off-label: weight reduction appears nowhere in the Ozempic indications, and the FDA has not reviewed that brand for that use. The practical consequences are the ceiling and the coverage. Ozempic stops at 2 mg once weekly, which is below the 2.4 mg the weight-reduction trials used as maintenance and well below the 7.2 mg its sibling permits. And an insurer processing an off-label claim is not obliged to treat it as the labelled one.

Why does Wegovy go to 7.2 mg when Ozempic stops at 2 mg?

Because the two applications were reviewed against different endpoints in different patients. Ozempic's dose-finding work was about glycaemic control and the label ends with "The maximum recommended dosage is 2 mg once weekly." Wegovy's 7.2 mg dosage was studied in two 72-week trials in 1,311 adults at 7.2 mg and 304 at 2.4 mg, for weight reduction in adults only, and the label gates it on tolerating 2.4 mg for at least four weeks first. The extra headroom is not free: dysesthesia — burning, tingling or uncomfortable skin sensation — was reported in 22% at 7.2 mg against 6% at 2.4 mg and 0% on placebo, and the label states that 18% of those affected did not report recovering during the trial.

Does one of them cause fewer side effects?

Not in any way these two labels establish, because the two labels report different trials. Ozempic's table comes from 521 patients, mean duration of exposure 32.9 weeks with type 2 diabetes, counting reactions at 5% and above; Wegovy's comes from 2,116 adults treated for up to 68 weeks, plus a 7-week off-drug follow-up with obesity or overweight, counting at 2%. Nausea reads 20.3% on Ozempic 1 mg and 44% on Wegovy 2.4 mg, but the placebo arms were 6.1% and 16% — a ten-point gap in doing nothing. Subtracting each pool's own placebo brings the any-GI excess to +21.1 pts and +26 pts, which is roughly what one molecule at two dose ranges ought to look like. There is one documented asymmetry and it is not about the gut: Wegovy carries a Warning and Precaution for resting heart rate with an instruction to discontinue, and Ozempic does not.

Is Wegovy more expensive than Ozempic?

At what a pharmacy pays on invoice, yes. In the CMS NADAC file dated 2026-09-16, a month of Ozempic at any strength works out at $1,079 — $249 per injection from a pen that holds four — and a month of Wegovy 2.4 mg at $1,415. The odd part is what happens inside the Wegovy range: every single-dose pen costs the pharmacy about $327 whatever strength it contains, so a month at 7.2 mg is $1,412 — effectively the same as a month at 2.4 mg for three times the drug. None of these is a retail price, a cash price or a copay; NADAC records acquisition cost only, and what you pay is set by your plan.

Do they have the same warnings?

Almost. Both open with the same boxed warning about rodent thyroid C-cell tumours and the same contraindication in personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2, and both carry warnings for pancreatitis, gallbladder disease, acute kidney injury from volume depletion, severe gastrointestinal reactions, hypersensitivity, diabetic retinopathy complications, pulmonary aspiration under anaesthesia, and never sharing a pen. Wegovy has one more than Ozempic: section 5.9, Heart Rate Increase, which tells the prescriber to monitor resting heart rate and to discontinue the drug if a sustained increase occurs. Ozempic reports a mean rise of 2 to 3 beats per minute in its adverse reactions section and attaches no warning or stopping rule to it.

Head to head

Ozempic vs Wegovy

The same molecule from the same company under two New Drug Applications. Neither label mentions the other by name, and no labelled rule converts a dose of one into a dose of the other.

Reviewed September 2026

The short answer

They are the same drug. Semaglutide, made by Novo Nordisk, injected under the skin once a week. What differs is the application it was approved under and therefore everything the label is allowed to say: Ozempic is NDA209637 and Wegovy injection is NDA215256, and the two documents were written for different patients.

The ceiling is the difference people quote and it is real. Ozempic's label states "The maximum recommended dosage is 2 mg once weekly." Wegovy's permits an increase "to a maximum dosage of 7.2 mg subcutaneously once weekly" for adults who have tolerated 2.4 mg for at least 4 weeks. That is 3.6 times as much semaglutide at the top of one ladder as the other allows anywhere.

The difference nobody quotes is that the labels do not acknowledge each other. The word "Wegovy" appears zero times in the Ozempic label. The word "Ozempic" appears zero times in the Wegovy label. Wegovy devotes a numbered section to switching between its own injection and its own tablets, and the word "switch" appears zero times in the Ozempic injection label. So there is no labelled conversion between them — and the three milligram figures their ladders do share — 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg — are not a conversion, because they sit at different points in two schedules of different lengths.

Two more asymmetries are worth more than the ceiling to most readers. Wegovy makes resting heart rate a Warning and Precaution with an instruction to stop the drug; Ozempic reports the same effect as an observation and carries no such warning. And the missed-dose windows differ: five days on Ozempic, two on Wegovy. Neither is on the list of things people compare, and both change what you should do on a Thursday.

3 of 17 dimensions are materially the same. They are marked below rather than dressed up as differences.

Ozempic

semaglutide injection · Ozempic tablets

Semaglutide injection approved for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular risk reduction and chronic kidney disease. NDA209637, Novo Nordisk.

Dosing protocol →

Wegovy

semaglutide injection · Wegovy HD · Wegovy tablets

The same molecule approved for weight reduction, cardiovascular risk reduction and noncirrhotic MASH. NDA215256, Novo Nordisk.

Dosing protocol →

Side by side

Every row carries how well supported it is. A claim that only reflects common practice is labelled as such rather than presented as fact.

Dimension	Ozempic	Wegovy	Basis
Active ingredientsame	Semaglutide	Semaglutide	labelIdentical molecule, identical manufacturer, identical once-weekly subcutaneous route. Every difference below is a difference between two regulatory applications, not between two drugs.
FDA application	NDA209637, marketing category NDA	NDA215256 (injection), NDA218316 (tablets), marketing category NDA	labelRead from the approval block of each Structured Product Label on 2026-09-20, not from the product name. Both are genuine approvals. The Wegovy set id carries two applications because one document covers the injection and the tablets.
What it is approved to treat	Type 2 diabetes — glycaemic control; cardiovascular risk reduction in established CV disease; chronic kidney disease in type 2 diabetes	Cardiovascular risk reduction in obesity or overweight with established CV disease; weight reduction and long-term weight maintenance; noncirrhotic MASH with F2–F3 fibrosis, under accelerated approval	labelNo overlap at all. The Ozempic indications, verbatim: "as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus." / "to reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction or non-fatal stroke) in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus and established cardiovascular disease." / "to reduce the risk of sustained eGFR decline, end-stage kidney disease, and cardiovascular death in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease." Weight reduction is not among them, so prescribing Ozempic for weight is off-label use of a brand whose identical molecule is on-label for weight under a different name.
Maximum labelled dosage	2 mg once weekly	7.2 mg once weekly	labelOzempic, verbatim: "The maximum recommended dosage is 2 mg once weekly." Wegovy: "For patients who tolerate the 2.4 mg dosage for at least 4 weeks and additional weight reduction is clinically indicated, the dosage may be increased to a maximum dosage of 7.2 mg subcutaneously once weekly." A ratio of 3.6, and the 7.2 mg dosage is for weight reduction in adults only.
Escalation ladder	0.25 mg → 0.5 mg → 1 mg → 2 mg	0.25 mg → 0.5 mg → 1 mg → 1.7 mg → 2.4 mg, then 7.2 mg if tolerated	labelThe first three rungs are the same three numbers and they do not mean the same thing. On Ozempic, 2 of the steps happen only "if additional glycemic control is needed"; on Wegovy, 0 are conditional and Table 1 prints the week windows outright. One ladder is climbed on response, the other on the calendar.
Weeks to the top of the ladder	Week 13 at the earliest, for 2 mg	Week 17 for 2.4 mg, week 21 for 7.2 mg	labelBoth schedules hold each step for 4 weeks, so the gap is a gap in the number of rungs, not in pace. Ozempic's week 13 is the EARLIEST its maximum can be reached rather than a date — the label states an interval and a condition, not a week number. Computed from the holds each label prints.
Switching between themsame	No labelled rule	No labelled rule	labelThe Ozempic label contains the word "Wegovy" zero times and the word "switch" zero times. The Wegovy label contains "Ozempic" zero times, while carrying a numbered section, 2.5, for switching between Wegovy injection and Wegovy tablets. A prescriber may of course move you from one to the other; no label tells them at what dose, and this page will not supply a number neither document contains.
Resting heart rate	Reported in adverse reactions; no Warning	Warning and Precaution 5.9, with an instruction to discontinue	labelThe single most surprising asymmetry between two labels for one molecule. Ozempic 6.1: "In placebo-controlled trials, OZEMPIC 0.5 mg and 1 mg resulted in a mean increase in heart rate of 2 to 3 beats per minute." Wegovy 5.9: "Monitor heart rate at regular intervals consistent with usual clinical practice… If patients experience a sustained increase in resting heart rate, discontinue WEGOVY." Wegovy has eleven Warnings and Precautions to Ozempic's ten, and this is the extra one.
Missed dose	Administer within 5 days of the missed dose; otherwise skip it.	If the next dose is more than 2 days away, take it as soon as possible; otherwise skip it.	labelOzempic, verbatim: "administer OZEMPIC as soon as possible within 5 days after the missed dose." Wegovy: "if a dose of WEGOVY injection is missed and the next scheduled dose is more than 2 days away (48 hours), administer WEGOVY injection as soon as possible." Two and a half times the grace period on one label. Worth knowing before you need it.
Device	Multi-dose pen — one pen holds several weekly injections	Single-dose pen or prefilled syringe — one device, one injection	labelOzempic section 3 lists single-patient-use pens "with multiple weekly doses"; the 2 mg/3 mL pen delivers four 2 mg injections. Every Wegovy pen is one injection. This is why the cost arithmetic below has to be done per injection rather than per box.
Paediatric use	Not established at any age	Established from age 12 for obesity — injection only	labelOzempic 8.4, verbatim: "Safety and efficacy of OZEMPIC have not been established in pediatric patients." Wegovy injection is indicated to reduce excess body weight in "adults and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with obesity", supported by a 68-week trial in 201 patients. The Wegovy label adds that the safety of its tablets and of the 7.2 mg dosage has not been established in children.
Nausea in each label's own trial pool	20.3% at 1 mg vs 6.1% placebo (+14.2 pts)	44% at 2.4 mg vs 16% placebo (+28 pts)	labelThese are two different trials and must not be subtracted. Ozempic's Table 1 pools 521 patients, mean duration of exposure 32.9 weeks with type 2 diabetes at a 5% reporting threshold; Wegovy's Table 3 pools 2,116 adults treated for up to 68 weeks, plus a 7-week off-drug follow-up with obesity or overweight at a 2% threshold. Placebo nausea alone differs by ten points between the two populations.
Any GI reaction, excess over placebo	+21.1 pts (36.4% vs 15.3%)	+26 pts (73% vs 47%)	labelCloser than the nausea headline once each pool's own placebo arm is subtracted, which is what you would expect of one molecule. Discontinuation for a gut reaction was 3.8% on Ozempic 1 mg and 4.3% on Wegovy 2.4 mg. Still two trials.
What the highest dosage adds	Nothing above 2 mg is labelled	Dysesthesia in 22% at 7.2 mg	labelThe reason the extra ceiling is not free. In the two 72-week trials of the 7.2 mg dosage, dysesthesia — the label's composite for burning, tingling and skin discomfort — was reported by 22% at 7.2 mg against 6% at 2.4 mg and 0% on placebo. The label adds that among those affected, "18% did not report recovering during the trial duration". No equivalent exists on the Ozempic label because no equivalent dosage does.
Boxed warningsame	Risk of thyroid C-cell tumours	Risk of thyroid C-cell tumours	labelWord for word the same finding on both labels, with only the brand name swapped. Ozempic, verbatim: "In rodents, semaglutide causes dose-dependent and treatment-duration-dependent thyroid C-cell tumors at clinically relevant exposures. It is unknown whether OZEMPIC causes thyroid C-cell tumors, including medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), in humans as human relevance of semaglutide-induced rodent thyroid C-cell tumors has not been determined." Both are contraindicated in personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2.
What a pharmacy paid, per month	$1,079 — $249 per injection from a 2 mg/3 mL pen	$1,415 at 2.4 mg, $1,412 at 7.2 mg	literatureCMS NADAC, file dated 2026-09-16. Invoice cost to a retail pharmacy — not a cash price, not a copay, and not a number you can walk in and pay. The odd part is the second figure: every Wegovy single-dose pen costs about $327 whatever is in it, so three times the drug costs the pharmacy the same.
Dollars per milligram	Not comparable — the pen delivers several doses	$45 to $1,307 per mg, within one product	literatureA flat price per pen across a sixteen-fold range of strengths produces a 29-fold spread in dollars per milligram for the identical molecule in the identical device. That figure describes a pricing convention and not a drug, which is why no comparison between the two brands is made on this axis.

label: Stated on the FDA label
guideline: Clinical practice guideline
literature: Published literature
practice: Common practice, not documented

Which one

Choose Ozempic if

Your diagnosis is type 2 diabetes. That is what the Ozempic label is for, and the 2 mg ceiling was set against glycaemic endpoints rather than weight ones.
You have type 2 diabetes with chronic kidney disease. Reduction of sustained eGFR decline and end-stage kidney disease is on the Ozempic label and on no Wegovy label.
You value the wider missed-dose window. Five days against two is the difference between a forgotten Sunday being fixable and not.
Cost is being paid close to acquisition and the indication fits — a month of Ozempic is a few hundred dollars less on invoice than a month of Wegovy, in a multi-dose pen rather than four single-use ones.

Choose Wegovy if

Weight reduction is the goal. It is a labelled indication of Wegovy and it is not a labelled indication of Ozempic, whatever the molecule in the syringe.
You need more than 2 mg a week. Only Wegovy has a labelled dosage above it, and only for weight reduction in adults after four tolerated weeks at 2.4 mg.
The patient is 12 to 17 with obesity. Wegovy injection is established in that age group; Ozempic explicitly is not established at any paediatric age.
The indication is noncirrhotic MASH with F2–F3 fibrosis, or cardiovascular risk reduction in obesity without diabetes. Both are Wegovy indications and neither is an Ozempic one.

The honest summary is that this is one drug wearing two labels, and the label — not the molecule — decides your dose ceiling, your indication, your insurance coverage and whether a paediatrician can prescribe it. What this page will not do is tell you what Wegovy dose corresponds to your Ozempic dose. Neither document names the other, no switching rule exists between them, and the shared milligram figures on the two ladders occupy different positions in different schedules. If you are moving between them, the receiving label's own starting dose and escalation are the only published guidance there is.

Frequently asked questions

Are Ozempic and Wegovy the same drug?: Chemically, yes — both are semaglutide made by Novo Nordisk and injected subcutaneously once a week. Legally they are two different medicines: Ozempic is approved under NDA209637 for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular risk reduction and chronic kidney disease, and Wegovy injection under NDA215256 for weight reduction, cardiovascular risk reduction in obesity or overweight, and noncirrhotic MASH. That distinction is not a technicality. It sets the maximum dose (2 mg against 7.2 mg once weekly), the age from which it can be prescribed, which warnings appear, and what your insurer is being asked to pay for.
What Wegovy dose equals my Ozempic dose?: No label answers that, and this page will not invent an answer. The word "Wegovy" does not appear in the Ozempic label and the word "Ozempic" does not appear in the Wegovy label — not once in either document. The Wegovy label does carry a numbered section on switching between Wegovy injection and Wegovy tablets, which shows it says so explicitly when a switch is authorised. The two ladders happen to share the figures 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg, but those are the first three rungs of a four-rung schedule on one product and of a five-rung schedule on the other, so matching the number does not match the position. If you are changing products, the new label's starting dose and escalation schedule are the only published guidance.
Can I take Ozempic for weight loss?: A physician can lawfully prescribe it for weight, and many do, but it is off-label: weight reduction appears nowhere in the Ozempic indications, and the FDA has not reviewed that brand for that use. The practical consequences are the ceiling and the coverage. Ozempic stops at 2 mg once weekly, which is below the 2.4 mg the weight-reduction trials used as maintenance and well below the 7.2 mg its sibling permits. And an insurer processing an off-label claim is not obliged to treat it as the labelled one.
Why does Wegovy go to 7.2 mg when Ozempic stops at 2 mg?: Because the two applications were reviewed against different endpoints in different patients. Ozempic's dose-finding work was about glycaemic control and the label ends with "The maximum recommended dosage is 2 mg once weekly." Wegovy's 7.2 mg dosage was studied in two 72-week trials in 1,311 adults at 7.2 mg and 304 at 2.4 mg, for weight reduction in adults only, and the label gates it on tolerating 2.4 mg for at least four weeks first. The extra headroom is not free: dysesthesia — burning, tingling or uncomfortable skin sensation — was reported in 22% at 7.2 mg against 6% at 2.4 mg and 0% on placebo, and the label states that 18% of those affected did not report recovering during the trial.
Does one of them cause fewer side effects?: Not in any way these two labels establish, because the two labels report different trials. Ozempic's table comes from 521 patients, mean duration of exposure 32.9 weeks with type 2 diabetes, counting reactions at 5% and above; Wegovy's comes from 2,116 adults treated for up to 68 weeks, plus a 7-week off-drug follow-up with obesity or overweight, counting at 2%. Nausea reads 20.3% on Ozempic 1 mg and 44% on Wegovy 2.4 mg, but the placebo arms were 6.1% and 16% — a ten-point gap in doing nothing. Subtracting each pool's own placebo brings the any-GI excess to +21.1 pts and +26 pts, which is roughly what one molecule at two dose ranges ought to look like. There is one documented asymmetry and it is not about the gut: Wegovy carries a Warning and Precaution for resting heart rate with an instruction to discontinue, and Ozempic does not.
Is Wegovy more expensive than Ozempic?: At what a pharmacy pays on invoice, yes. In the CMS NADAC file dated 2026-09-16, a month of Ozempic at any strength works out at $1,079 — $249 per injection from a pen that holds four — and a month of Wegovy 2.4 mg at $1,415. The odd part is what happens inside the Wegovy range: every single-dose pen costs the pharmacy about $327 whatever strength it contains, so a month at 7.2 mg is $1,412 — effectively the same as a month at 2.4 mg for three times the drug. None of these is a retail price, a cash price or a copay; NADAC records acquisition cost only, and what you pay is set by your plan.
Do they have the same warnings?: Almost. Both open with the same boxed warning about rodent thyroid C-cell tumours and the same contraindication in personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2, and both carry warnings for pancreatitis, gallbladder disease, acute kidney injury from volume depletion, severe gastrointestinal reactions, hypersensitivity, diabetic retinopathy complications, pulmonary aspiration under anaesthesia, and never sharing a pen. Wegovy has one more than Ozempic: section 5.9, Heart Rate Increase, which tells the prescriber to monitor resting heart rate and to discontinue the drug if a sustained increase occurs. Ozempic reports a mean rise of 2 to 3 beats per minute in its adverse reactions section and attaches no warning or stopping rule to it.

Sources

Next steps

Compare online weight-loss providersWhich platforms prescribe branded Wegovy, which write Ozempic off-label, and what each charges.Medical weight loss, start to finishEligibility, the first six months, monitoring, and what happens if you stop.

Other comparisons

Educational reference, not medical advice. Which medication suits you is a decision for your prescriber.