For almost a decade, Oprah Winfrey served on WeightWatchers’ board of directors and also appeared in commercials promoting the diet program. “You can eat bread!” she promised viewers.
Then in late 2023, Winfrey disclosed she had added weight-loss medication to her maintenance routine. She soon sold her shares in WeightWatchers and decided not to seek reelection for the board. Her announcements sparked a larger public interest in the possibilities of weight-loss medications.
Weight-loss medications like Wegovy or Ozempic may seem new to many people, but they belong to a drug class the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved decades ago. In recent years, scientists have found that these medications may be able to do even more than help people shed pounds.
What Is Wegovy?
Wegovy and Ozempic are the brand names for an injectable semaglutide drug manufactured by Novo Nordisk U.S. The two drugs are essentially the same, and Wegovy is a higher-dose version of Ozempic.
