It costs an arm and a leg to lose weight with the drug Wegovy. But there may be a cheaper way to get there. A new analysis from the Association of Danish Pharmacies shows a sharp rise in sales of the cheaper drug, Ozempic.
Originally developed for people with diabetes, it has essentially the same effect as Wegovy when it comes to weight loss.
Normally, Ozempic is prescribed as subsidized diabetes medicine by general practitioners.
However, the proportion of Ozempic pens sold without subsidy, and thus also to other patient groups, has increased significantly over the past year and a half: From less than 1 percent of total sales at the beginning of 2024 to over 12 percent in July 2025, the analysis shows.
The explanation could very well be that doctors are increasingly prescribing Ozempic as weight loss drug because patients are asking for the cheaper version, suggests Flemming Randløv, chief economic consultant at the Association of Danish Pharmacies:
»It cannot be ruled out that some diabetes patients choose to pay the full amount for their medicine themselves if they do not meet the subsidy criteria but still want the treatment.«
»But a qualified guess is that the dramatic rise in the use of Ozempic for purposes other than its intended use is due to doctors prescribing it as weight loss drug because it is cheaper than Wegovy,« he says in the Association of Danish Pharmacies’ newsletter, although he emphasizes that the analysis does not provide a precise explanation for the trend.
Save DKK 430 per pen
The increase in the consumption of Ozempic without subsidy coincides with Novo Nordisk lowering the price of its Ozempic pens at the end of April 2024.
The price dropped from around DKK 1,313 to DKK 855 for a pen with 0.5 milligrams of Ozempic.
A comparable Wegovy pen, also made by Novo Nordisk, costs DKK 1,285. That means patients who switch medications—or can convince their GP to prescribe Ozempic instead of Wegovy—save about DKK 430 per pen.
Maria Krüger, vice president of the Danish College of General Practitioners (DSAM), also notes that some diabetes patients may no longer be eligible for reimbursement but still want to continue the treatment for weight loss.
In such cases, a doctor can prescribe Ozempic to a diabetes patient without it qualifying for reimbursement.
»And of course there are patients who use it solely for weight-loss treatment. In essence, Wegovy and Ozempic are the same medication. How widespread that is isn’t shown by the figures. That would require a further analysis looking at the indication on the prescription—whether it’s obesity or diabetes,« says Maria Krüger.
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