When Did Wegovy Hit the Market — and What's Changed Since?

The common misconception: Wegovy arrived in the UK when it launched in the US

Many people searching for this topic assume the UK and US timelines ran in parallel. They didn't. Wegovy was approved by the US FDA in June 2021 and reached American patients fairly quickly afterwards. In the UK, the route is separate: the MHRA licenses medicines independently, and NHS access follows its own commissioning process on top of that.

The MHRA granted a UK marketing authorisation for semaglutide 2.4 mg (Wegovy) for weight management in 2022. But licensing and availability are different things. Supply shortages (partly driven by enormous global demand for semaglutide, much of it from its diabetes brand Ozempic) meant that consistent access for UK patients came later, and anyone wanting to understand the commercial forces behind that demand can find a useful overview on our page covering the semaglutide market. Wegovy began reaching UK patients in meaningful numbers from autumn 2023, which is the date most reliably answers the question of when it actually hit the market here.

Separately, the broader history of semaglutide goes back further still, to its development as a diabetes medicine, something worth understanding if you want the full picture of how this drug class evolved.

What NICE approval in March 2023 meant, and what it didn't mean

NICE published its recommendation for Wegovy in March 2023 under technology appraisal TA875, but this is often misread as a signal that the medicine was freely available on the NHS from that point. It wasn't. NICE's appraisal of semaglutide (TA875) recommended it for adults with a BMI of 35 or above (with lower thresholds for some ethnic backgrounds) and at least one weight-related condition, used within a specialist weight management service for a maximum of two years.

That specialist-service requirement created a bottleneck. NHS weight management services in England face significant waiting lists, and the NICE recommendation did not immediately translate into widespread prescriptions. For many people who met the clinical criteria, private treatment through a regulated online pharmacy became the practical route. If you're weighing up those options, the cost context for Wegovy in the UK is worth reading before you decide.

NICE's criteria also reflect clinical evidence rather than commercial convenience, and the two-year maximum is a meaningful constraint. A prescriber working within those guidelines would consider stopping treatment if less than five per cent body weight had been lost after six months at the maintenance dose.

2026: a year of significant expansion, new doses, a new form

The UK market changed substantially in early 2026. In January, the MHRA approved a higher 7.2 mg maintenance dose for Wegovy, initially delivered as three 2.4 mg pens per week. Then, on 14 April 2026, the MHRA approved a dedicated single-dose 7.2 mg pen (one pre-set weekly injection) for adults with a BMI of 30 or above. Clinical trials reported an average weight loss of around 20.7% over 72 weeks at this dose, closing some of the gap with tirzepatide at its highest licensed strength.

Then, on 11 June 2026, the MHRA approved Wegovy tablets, the first oral GLP-1 medicine licensed in the UK for weight management, and the first in Europe. The tablets use a co-formulation with an absorption enhancer, taken first thing in the morning before food or drink, escalating from 1.5 mg to a 25 mg maintenance dose over several months. The OASIS 4 phase 3 trial reported an average weight loss of around 13.6% over 64 weeks versus placebo, and approximately 17% among participants who remained fully adherent to treatment. That second figure should always be read in context: it represents the adherent subgroup, not the overall average. For anyone curious about how the semaglutide story fits together across all its forms, the picture is now considerably wider than it was even two years ago.

The oral approval also matters because it removes the injection as a barrier for people who find self-injection difficult. No refrigeration is required, which some patients find easier for travel and routine. You can read more about Wegovy as a treatment option, including both the injection and tablet forms, on our main Wegovy page.

Where things stand in mid-2026 and what it means for private patients

The NHS phased rollout for tirzepatide (Mounjaro), recommended by NICE in December 2024, is now underway. Semaglutide on the NHS remains tethered to specialist services. For people who don't qualify under current NHS criteria or who would rather not wait (and waiting lists can stretch to many months) private prescription remains the alternative.

There's a reasonable question about whether the private market is safe. The honest answer is: it depends entirely on the pharmacy. The grey market for semaglutide has attracted counterfeit products; the MHRA has warned publicly about fake pens sold via social media, and enforcement operations in 2025 seized approximately 20 million doses of illegally traded weight-loss medicines worth around £45 million. The safe route is a GPhC-registered pharmacy that you can verify on the GPhC register and that requires a genuine clinical assessment before dispensing anything.

At nume, every consultation is reviewed the same day by a GPhC-registered Independent Prescriber. If you'd like to understand how that process works and whether you might be eligible, you can read more on our about us page or explore weight-loss treatment options more broadly. When you're ready, checking your eligibility with our clinical team is the natural next step.