A WEIGHT-LOSS PILL ARRIVES

The launch of a pill version of Wegovy marks a new phase in GLP-1 drugs

- BY ALICE PARK

IN THE LAST WEEK OF DECEMBER, WHILE MOST of the U. S. was still in holiday mode, Novo Nordisk's plant in North Carolina was operating at full capacity.

On Dec. 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company's oral version of Wegovy, making it the first of the popular GLP-1 medications to get the green light as a pill for weight loss. People who want to lose weight and are prescribed Wegovy now have the option of taking a tablet daily vs. injecting themselves with the drug once a week. They're expected to lose about the same amount of weight with either version: 16% to 17% of their starting body weight.

The plant, just outside of Raleigh, is running around the clock to produce bottles of pills in four different doses, which have been available at retail stores and online pharmacies since the first week of January. “Obesity has become a consumer-oriented disease,” Novo Nordisk’s CEO Mike Doustdar tells TIME. “We’re embracing that.”

The company's entire supply of the drug will be manufactured in North Carolina. Days before the launch of the Wegovy pill, TIME visited the plant to watch the first pills being produced, bottled, and packaged for patients.