New weight loss medication (Wegovy) approved for use in Canada

Great news! Today, a new weight loss medication called Wegovy has been approved for use in Canada. It joins previously Health Canada approved weight loss medications Saxenda, Contrave and Xenical.

Board-approved weight loss doctors such as myself have been waiting for this for a long time! After all, Wegovy was approved by the FDA in the United States on June 4, 2021. And it’s been so popular there that it’s been hard for the manufacturer to keep up with demand.

Wegovy contains semaglutide, the same ingredient as the once weekly injectable diabetes drug Ozempic which was approved by Health Canada in January, 2018 and is widely used. Semaglutide is also found in Rybelsus (in a daily pill form) which was approved by Health Canada in April, 2020.

Wegovy comes in once weekly injectable dosing. There are five dosage levels — 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1.0 mg (which are the same dose levels as Ozempic) as well as 1.7 mg and 2.4 mg.

In the STEP 1 study published in the March 21, 2021 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, more than 50% of patients on the 2.4 mg dose lost more than 15% of their body weight. That is better than what other approved weight loss medications have been able to do. It is also as good as some forms of weight loss surgery.

Here is a link to the STEP 1 study: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183

Now we will need to wait for the drug to be officially launched in Canada, likely later in 2022.