Wegovy and Ozempic carry the same active ingredient, semaglutide, and they carry different labeled uses and different maximum doses. The Ozempic prescribing information, revised May 2026, is a type 2 diabetes label. The Wegovy prescribing information, revised June 2026, pairs its injection with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity and writes it to reduce excess body weight and maintain that reduction long term, along with the other uses that document lists. On a subway ad, at a dinner, in the shorthand of a group chat, the two names wear down into one rumor: the weekly shot, the famous pen. The labels keep the paperwork apart. Same molecule. Two jobs. Two ceilings.
Both documents describe that molecule in the same sentences. Semaglutide is a human GLP-1 receptor agonist, a GLP-1 analog, with 94 percent sequence homology to human GLP-1. Both print the molecular formula C187H291N45O59 and the molecular weight 4113.58 g/mol. DailyMed lists the same packager on both, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceutical Industries, LP, and both are new drug applications. The chemistry of the ingredient is the ground covered in what the main ingredient in Ozempic is and in whether Ozempic is a peptide. The peptide is the settled part. The carton around it is where the names diverge.
Ozempic's maximum recommended dosage is 2 mg once weekly. Wegovy's usual recommended maintenance injection is 2.4 mg.
Two names keep one molecule in two markets
Ozempic's indications each name type 2 diabetes. The drug is an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is labeled to reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events — cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, or non-fatal stroke — in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus and established cardiovascular disease. It is labeled to reduce the risk of sustained eGFR decline, end-stage kidney disease, and cardiovascular death in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease. On that kidney line the maintenance dosage is its own number: 1 mg once weekly, after at least four weeks on the 0.5 mg dosage.
Wegovy's injection opens on a different set of doors. In combination with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, it is indicated to reduce the risk of those same named cardiovascular events in adults with established cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight. It is indicated to reduce excess body weight and maintain weight reduction long term in adults and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with obesity, and in adults with overweight in the presence of at least one weight-related comorbid condition. It is also indicated for noncirrhotic metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, formerly called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis on the label, with moderate to advanced liver fibrosis consistent with stages F2 to F3, under accelerated approval that may depend on a confirmatory trial. Wegovy tablets carry the cardiovascular and weight-reduction indications in adults, on the same diet-and-activity terms.
The event in the heart lines matches: death, heart attack, stroke. The qualifying disease in the sentence changes. One line requires type 2 diabetes plus established cardiovascular disease. The other requires established cardiovascular disease plus obesity or overweight. Ordinary talk folds both lines into "the heart benefit." The labels leave the doorway in the sentence.
Wegovy's indications close with a limitation of use. Concomitant use of Wegovy tablets or Wegovy injection with other semaglutide-containing products, or with any other GLP-1 receptor agonist, is not recommended. That sentence is the label's own line about another semaglutide product on the same shelf.
Each label stops the weekly dose at its own ceiling
The first month is where the mix-up is easiest, because the opening step is shared. Ozempic starts at 0.25 mg injected subcutaneously once weekly for four weeks, then moves to 0.5 mg once weekly, a climb the label ties to reducing the risk of gastrointestinal adverse reactions. For glycemic control, the recommended maintenance dosage is 0.5 mg, 1 mg, or 2 mg once weekly, chosen on glycemic control. After at least four weeks at 0.5 mg, the dosage may increase to 1 mg once weekly. After at least four weeks at 1 mg, it may increase to 2 mg once weekly. The maximum recommended dosage is 2 mg once weekly.
The hardware matches that list. Ozempic's single-patient-use pens hold several weekly doses: 2 mg/3 mL (0.68 mg/mL) for 0.25 mg and 0.5 mg injections, 4 mg/3 mL (1.34 mg/mL) for 1 mg injections, and 8 mg/3 mL (2.68 mg/mL) for 2 mg injections. Single-dose syringes carry 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, or 1 mg in 0.5 mL.
Wegovy injection uses one escalation table for every approved indication, in adults and in pediatric patients 12 and older. Weeks 1 through 4 are 0.25 mg. Weeks 5 through 8 are 0.5 mg. Weeks 9 through 12 are 1 mg. Weeks 13 through 16 are 1.7 mg. From week 17 the table points to the indication. The highlights call 2.4 mg once weekly the usual recommended maintenance dosage of Wegovy injection.
On weight reduction in adults, maintenance is 1.7 mg or 2.4 mg once weekly, and 2.4 mg is the one marked recommended. For patients who tolerate 2.4 mg for at least four weeks, when additional weight reduction is clinically indicated, the dosage may be increased to a maximum of 7.2 mg subcutaneously once weekly. Cardiovascular risk reduction in adults, and weight reduction in pediatric patients 12 and older, each list 2.4 mg as recommended or 1.7 mg. The maintenance dosage for noncirrhotic MASH is 2.4 mg once weekly, with room to decrease to 1.7 mg when 2.4 mg is not tolerated. Single-dose pens include 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg, 2.4 mg, and 7.2 mg, the last of them marked Wegovy HD. A FlexTouch pen holds 9.6 mg/3 mL and delivers four doses of 2.4 mg.
The Wegovy name also covers a daily tablet. For cardiovascular risk reduction or weight reduction in adults, maintenance is 25 mg orally once daily, after a start at 1.5 mg once daily for 30 days. Tablet strengths are 1.5 mg, 4 mg, 9 mg, and 25 mg: still semaglutide, on a daily schedule.
Set the injection ceilings side by side. Ozempic's maximum recommended dosage is 2 mg once weekly. Wegovy's usual recommended maintenance injection is 2.4 mg once weekly, and the adult weight-reduction section carries a maximum of 7.2 mg. The early weeks rhyme. Each label states its own top.
Compounded and research semaglutide is a third product
Compounded semaglutide, and material sold as if it were for a lab bench, circulate under the same nickname as the two approved pens. They are a third product.
The FDA's page on unapproved GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss says unapproved versions of these drugs, including semaglutide, do not undergo FDA review for safety, effectiveness, and quality before they are marketed, and that compounded drugs are not FDA-approved. The same page says the agency has warned companies that illegally sold unapproved drugs containing semaglutide falsely labeled "for research purposes" or "not for human consumption." Those products, the agency writes, have been sold directly to consumers for human use, with dosing instructions, and are of unknown quality and may be harmful. It also says some semaglutide sold by compounders may be a salt form, semaglutide sodium or semaglutide acetate, a different active ingredient from the one in the approved drugs. The agency says it does not have information on whether those salts have the same chemical and pharmacologic properties, and that it is not aware of any lawful basis for their use in compounding.
One telehealth warning sign on that page is a seller that "makes claims such as the compounded drug is the same as an FDA-approved drug." Wegovy and Ozempic already show how one molecule, semaglutide, becomes two labeled products with two maximum doses. A compounded vial, or a vial marked for research, sits outside both new drug applications, with the gaps that FDA page describes.