You've heard these brand names because their manufacturer markets the heck out of them. The ads are everywhere.

Ozempic®, Rybelsus®, and Wegovy® are different brand names for a drug called semaglutide. They're all in a family together:

Throughout this course, I'll just refer to "semaglutides" as a group rather than typing out the brand names every time. It keeps things shorter, and I'm tryin' to get you to the finish line as fast as possible so you can focus on losing weight instead of reading.

Just FYI, if we zoom out a little, semaglutides are part of a family of drugs called GLP-1 agonists:

It's a big family tree. Heck, we could even zoom out further and there are more drugs that are similar. For example, tirzepatides like Mounjaro and Zepbound are GLP-1 agonists, plus they do other stuff too.

In this course, I'm only going to discuss the semaglutides branch of the family tree. This branch was originally designed to treat type 2 diabetes. It just so happened that it turned out to help us regulate our weight, too.

Semaglutides treat diabetes by increasing insulin production, decreasing glucagon secretion, slowing down digestion, and reducing appetite, all of which help to lower blood sugar levels and promote weight loss.

The last two - slowing down digestion and reducing appetite - are the important ones for people like you and me.

All 3 of the semaglutides - Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus - are from the same drug company, Novo Nordisk. Here's a timeline of what happened:

• 2016 - Ozempic (weekly injection) approved by the FDA to treat diabetes
• 2019 - Rybelsus (tablets) approved by the FDA to treat diabetes

By then, people figured out that semaglutides had a really cool side effect: they helped you lose weight. However, the mean ol' FDA says, "Once a drug has been approved for something, you can't go back and get another approval for a different use."

To work around that, Novo Nordisk said, "Uhhhh, we have a new drug here called Wegovy, and it helps you lose weight." In 2021, the FDA approved Wegovy - a new brand name for the same drug.

The important thing to know is all three semaglutides are the same thing! They all have the same functions, the same side effects. If you hear someone talking about the side effects of Ozempic vs Wegovy vs Rybelsus, they're the same thing, just in different dose sizes or delivery formats.

By now you're thinking, "Okay, great - if I can buy any of them and they all do the same thing, what's the cheapest way to get it?" And that's where things start to get really interesting.