EU approves Wegovy for chronic weight management in obesity

At the start of 2022, the European Union authorised semaglutide, marketed by Novo Nordisk as Wegovy, for chronic weight management. The approval covered adults with obesity, and some with overweight who also have weight-related health problems. The drug is a weekly injection that mimics a gut hormone to reduce appetite. It had previously been approved in higher-dose-free form for type 2 diabetes.

The decision marked a turning point because obesity drugs of this kind had shown far larger weight loss in clinical trials than earlier treatments. It opened the way for doctors across the EU to prescribe the medicine for obesity itself.

In Germany, however, approval did not mean reimbursement. Under social code law (Sozialgesetzbuch V), drugs mainly used to reduce weight are classed as lifestyle medicines and excluded from statutory health insurance, which covers most of the population. Patients therefore had to pay privately. This exclusion became the basis for later debate about whether insurers should fund weight-loss injections, which is the context for current statements by health insurance leaders.