EXCLUSIVE: Currently an oral form of a ground-breaking weight-loss pill is "under review" in the UK, but it has just been approved in the US.

15:00, Thu, Jan 15, 2026 Updated: 15:09, Thu, Jan 15, 2026

Injection

Weight loss jabs are being used by millions of people in the UK (Image: Getty )

A medical expert has said patients battling obesity could soon have access to a cheaper weight-loss pill which they would take for life. The US Food and Drug Administration has given a worldfirst green light to a tablet version of the obesity-busting drug Wegovy. The oral form of the medication is the first of its kind to receive formal approval from a national regulator.

Here in Britain, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said a pill from the Wegovy manufacturer was "under review". Injectable versions of GLP-1 drugs, which mimic a natural hormone that controls appetite and feelings of fullness, have rocketed in popularity in the UK with around 1.6 million adults using them in the past year, said the University College London.

But for the estimated nine out of 10 people accessing the drugs privately, injector pens of the medication cost between £100 to £300 depending on the dose. However, medical experts are hopeful the approval of a pill version in the US could pave the way for a cheaper oral form of the drug here which patients can take for life, just like treatments for high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.

Professor Dicker

Prof. Dror Dicker, an obesity specialist at Rabin Medical Center in Israel (Image: Supplied )

Prof Dror Dicker, an obesity specialist at Rabin Medical Center in Israel, said: "People don't understand that obesity is a chronic disease. They are surprised we have to take the medication for life. But if we succeed it will reduce mortality, reduce cardiovascular disease, and reduce liver and kidney failure. Obesity is not a choice, it's a disease. As with most diseases, we're not healing them, we're managing them."

Prof Dicker added that there were three main groups of people who could benefit from the oral version of the drug. He continued: "We have so many people living with obesity, more than one billion people in very rural countries or rural areas, without the capacity of refrigerating the injecting syringe or the pen, which need to be kept cool.

"Now we can reach those rural places that could not be treated with the pen and with the oral option we can really treat those patients.

"That is one group, the second group is those patients who have a fear of needles, even though this is a small group, now they have the option of oral medication.

"The third group that I think as a physician is those patients that were treated with the syringe, with the pen, and got to the point of reaching a steady weight. Now we can replace the treatment with the once-weekly injection with the oral option."

Fat person with a pill

(Stock image) It's hoped a new pill form of the weight-loss drug could help millions more people (Image: Getty )

In terms of the cost of any future pill being available in the UK, Prof Dicker said: "I think it will be cheaper because cost is a major issue for people, because if you have to use it your whole life, the cost is crucial and this has been a barrier because the high prices meant people have been using it and then stopped.

"This is a huge mistake, because if you stop the medication, you immediately regain the weight very quickly.

"Obesity is a physiological maladaption or malfunction of the adipose tissue. It's a physiological failure. So if you succeed to treat those patients with an answer for this physiological failure and then you stop treating those physiological failures, of course the physiological failure is still there.

"We have to prioritise who really should get their medication, because it's going to cost, in the beginning it's going to be a cost for the state. But we made this analysis in Israel, and it showed (as a state) that for every one dollar that you will invest, you will earn five dollars in five years, just by treating obesity.

Prof Dicker concluded: "It's important to really emphasise two things. The first one is obesity or people who are living with obesity are not to blame for their obesity. It's a physiological failure or maladaptation of the adipocytes (fat cells).

"The second point is that we are not aiming just to cause weight loss, the aim now is promoting health, because we have many studies that show the benefits to health of weight loss. This must be emphasised."

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Julian Beach, MHRA Interim Executive Director of Healthcare Quality and Access said: "We have received a licence application for oral semaglutide 25mg once-daily from Novo Nordisk and this is under review.

"Any decision will be made in line with our national assessment procedure for marketing authorisation applications."