Anti-obesity drugs in pill form: Europe says yes, oral semaglutide is on its way

Even more interesting were the results for the so-called ‘early responders’: approximately one in three people responded immediately to the treatment, achieving an average weight loss of 22 per cent by the end of the study.

“This treatment,” explains Professor Paolo Sbraccia , Professor of Internal Medicine at Tor Vergata University in Rome and Director of the Internal Medicine Unit and the Obesity Medical Centre at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic, “meets a real need: there are many people who are highly motivated to manage their weight, but who have so far been waiting for a medicine suited to their specific needs and lifestyles.

For us clinicians, this means being able to treat excess weight and obesity effectively, whilst also reducing the risk of related complications.
This new formulation has demonstrated significant results in weight loss, on a par with injectable therapies and superior to placebo and other forthcoming oral treatments, both in terms of efficacy and a lower likelihood of treatment discontinuation due to side effects, as shown by the Orion indirect analysis, presented at the latest European Congress on Obesity.”

“Semaglutide in tablet form,” comments Professor Annamaria Colao, Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at the Federico II University of Naples, “represents a step forward in weight management and control.
Thanks to its characteristics, it can be easily incorporated into people’s daily routines. Semaglutide has also proven effective in reducing food cravings, a real problem that has a significant impact on the quality of life of many people.”

The injectable formulation of semaglutide, administered weekly at doses of 2.4 mg and 7.2 mg, has already been approved by the FDA, the EMA and other regulatory authorities for weight loss and the maintenance of weight loss over time.

The 25 mg tablet was developed as part of the OASIS Phase 3 clinical development programme, which enrolled around 1,300 adults who were obese or overweight and had at least one comorbidity, testing doses of 25 mg and 50 mg per day.

The FDA approved oral semaglutide at the end of 2025 and orforglipron (the first non-peptide oral GLP-1 agonist) on 1 April 2026.

At European level, as we have seen, the EMA granted approval for oral semaglutide on 16 July 2026, whilst the registration process for orforglipron is still ongoing.

With semaglutide tablets, obesity treatment has thus officially entered the era of oral formulations, even in Europe.

It remains to be seen how these new options will be integrated into everyday clinical practice, alongside the injectable therapies already available, and what the timeframe and reimbursement arrangements will be in individual European countries, including Italia.