Wegovy and Co. were just the beginning. New remedies promise fewer injections, lower prices and even natural alternatives.
01/20/2026, 03:5401/20/2026, 03:54
Stephanie Schnydrig / ch media
The demand for the so-called weight loss injections shows no sign of abating: only go to Helsana, the country’s largest health insurance company Between 100 and 200 requests for Wegov every dayy a. And at the same time, the next generation of weight loss medications is already in the starting blocks. Most recently, the Danish company Novo Nordisk made headlines: the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the announcement for the first time a weight loss pill with the GLP-1 active ingredient semaglutide.
Very popular, even in Switzerland: weight loss medications.Image: keystone
Novo Nordisk did not specifically answer whether an application for approval for the pill had already been submitted in Switzerland or when this might happen. The group simply emphasized that it wanted to continue to provide patients in Switzerland with innovative therapies and provide information about new products as soon as the time came.
Regardless, one wonders why it took so long for the syringe to become a tablet? The answer lies in biochemistry. Semaglutide consists of large protein molecules, so-called peptides, which are destroyed in the stomach. For decades it was therefore the case that GLP-1 drugs had to be injected in order to have an effect.
But Novo Nordisk found a detour: It packaged the active ingredient in such a way that a tiny portion – around one percent – survives the digestive tract and enters the blood. Diabetics were able to get their sugar under control, but the effect was too weak for people with obesity. They hardly lost any weight with it. That’s why the company put significantly more semaglutide in the weight loss pill. And lo and behold: the pounds fell off just as much as with the injection.
Fear of needles is overrated
It remains to be seen whether the tablet will actually become the next big breakthrough. Bernd Schultes, medical director of the St. Gallen Metabolic Center and President of the Swiss Obesity Society (SMOB), remains cautious. He believes the oft-cited fear of needles is overestimated. “Most patients get along well with it in the long term,” he says.
In addition, taking the Wegovy pill is cumbersome. It must be swallowed on an empty stomach and then you must not eat or drink anything for half an hour. “Otherwise the medication simply passes through the gastrointestinal tract – with no effect,” explains Schultes. And because the tablet has to be taken daily, it could be even more inconvenient in everyday life than a weekly injection.
A different tablet approach is the US company Eli Lilly, the second pharmaceutical giant to get involved in the weight loss revolution. Its active ingredient, orforglipron, is not a large protein, but a small, stable molecule that easily survives stomach acid and digestive enzymes. In studies It also achieved weight loss on par with the injections.
Because Orforglipron can be taken without regard to meals, this could be a key advantage over the Wegovy pill. Experience has shown that medications that are easier to integrate into everyday life are taken more reliably – and therefore have a more reliable effect. An FDA approval decision could be made in the first half of 2026.
Test field for generics opened
Something is likely to change soon, not only in terms of administration, but also in the price of the weight loss pills. Canada was the first country to recently have its patent on semaglutide expire, and later this year the patent in India will also expire. These countries are becoming testing grounds for generics – and thus for cheaper weight loss medications. In Canada alone, the health authority Health Canada had until the end of last year nine applications have already been receivedto be allowed to manufacture semaglutide, including one from the Swiss generic drug company Sandoz.
In Europe, the market will remain protected until 2031. However, private individuals are allowed to import limited quantities of medicines for their own use. However, Swissmedic warns urgently against orders from unknown online sources.
Lose weight naturally
Parallel to the medication boom, another market is growing: that of “natural” weight loss aids. They promise weight loss without a prescription and without side effects. To do this, resourceful companies extract fiber, bitter substances or plant extracts from berries, spices, coffee and other seemingly slimming foods and package them in capsules, powder or tablets.
Others rely on bacterial strains that… “naturally increase GLP-1” should. However, this promise is based on a common misunderstanding: natural GLP-1, which the body releases when we eat, works completely differently than pharmaceutical GLP-1. Medications activate the receptors in the brain sometimes hundreds to thousands of times more strongly than the body’s own hormone.
A prominent entrepreneur from Switzerland has also jumped on the bandwagon of natural slimming products: Alexandra Lüönd, co-founder of the beauty empire Beauty2Go. According to “Bilanz”, she is one of the richest Swiss people under 40 and is launching her first line of nutritional supplements this year – including the product GlowSlim, advertised as a kind of “natural Ozempic”. Lüönd assures us that it is manufactured in Austria with ingredients of only the highest quality.
According to the young entrepreneur, Beauty2Go used to offer treatments with weight loss injections. But delivery bottlenecks and the growing skepticism of many customers have led to a rethink. “Many people want something gentler,” she says.
GlowSlim, she emphasizes, does not interfere hormonally with metabolism. “We do not activate the satiety hormone GLP-1 directly.” Instead, swellable fiber such as inulin or glucomannan are supposed to fill you up, while chromium and bitter substances suppress the appetite and reduce cravings.
Hardly any reliable evidence of impact
However, it is not entirely clear how well this works. The scientific evidence for weight loss supplements is scant. In one The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) states the fact sheetthat most would have no or at best very small effects on body weight.
In addition, many dietary supplements consist of mixtures of numerous substances, the interactions of which have often hardly been investigated (unlike medicines, dietary supplements do not go through an approval process.) So anyone who uses such products should only buy them from reputable suppliers and, if necessary, seek medical advice.
Swissmedic explicitly warns against so-called “natural Ozempic” products that are sold on dubious online platforms with exaggerated advertising promises. Since the boom in weight loss injections, the authorities have observed an increase in illegal and sometimes criminal offers. Confiscated shipments often contain allegedly “herbal” preparations that contain undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients – with a correspondingly high health risk.
In addition, the preparations are hardly cheaper than medications. Most cost around 100 francs per month – about the same as what self-payers spend on weight loss injections. Or, as a woman once put it to this newspaper:
“As much as I pay for a fitness subscription per month.”
(aargauerzeitung.ch)