Only three branded injections are approved in the US for general weight management, and many more shots are sold under the same name. "Weight-loss injection" covers approved GLP-1 medicines, diabetes medicines used off-label, compounded copies, and clinic shots with no approval at all. This page is a dated register of all of them: what each one is, what the FDA record says, and where the full page is. It ranks nothing.
Read on 12 November 2026 from Drugs@FDA, the labels on the FDA's openFDA label service, and this site's own dated pages, which are linked from each line. How to inject, where, and how pens are stored is a different question, answered on GLP-1 injections explained.
Approved for weight management
| Injection | Molecule, schedule | Approved (Drugs@FDA) | Who the label covers | Label trial figure (population, length) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saxenda | Liraglutide, daily | 23 December 2014, NDA 206321 | Adults with obesity, or overweight with a weight-related condition; children 12+ over 60 kg with obesity | −7.4% vs −3.0% on placebo (Study 1, 3,731 adults without diabetes, 56 weeks) |
| Generic liraglutide (Saxenda-equivalent) | Liraglutide, daily | Teva 27 August 2025; Biocon and Orbicular 24 February 2026 (AP2) | As Saxenda | Approved on equivalence, not on new trials |
| Wegovy | Semaglutide, weekly | 4 June 2021, NDA 215256 | Adults and children 12+ with obesity; adults with overweight and a related condition; and to lower heart-event risk in adults with heart disease | −14.9% vs −2.4% on placebo at 2.4 mg (STEP 1, 1,961 adults without diabetes, 68 weeks) |
| Zepbound | Tirzepatide, weekly | 8 November 2023, NDA 217806 | Adults with obesity, or overweight with a related condition; moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnoea with obesity | −20.9% vs −3.1% on placebo at 15 mg (SURMOUNT-1, 2,539 adults without diabetes, 72 weeks) |
Why the trial figures are not a league table. The trials ran for different lengths, in different years, with different lifestyle programmes alongside. One trial compares two of these directly — SURMOUNT-5, tirzepatide against semaglutide — and it is reported on Zepbound vs Wegovy. Saxenda has not been compared head-to-head with either in a trial reported on this site; Saxenda vs Zepbound sets their separate trials side by side.
Devices change, approvals do not. Each brand comes in more than one form. Wegovy has pens, a 7.2 mg HD pen added in March 2026 and a daily tablet (a separate label for the tablet — see weight-loss pills). Zepbound has single-dose pens, a KwikPen and vials. Saxenda's maker has told FDA that one of its packs will stop being made in January 2027, as recorded on the Saxenda page.
One more approval, for rare obesity only. Imcivree (setmelanotide; Rhythm, NDA 213793, approved 25 November 2020) is a daily injection labelled for weight only in specific conditions: acquired hypothalamic obesity from age 4, and Bardet-Biedl syndrome or obesity caused by confirmed POMC, PCSK1 or LEPR gene variants from age 2 (label effective 1 April 2026). It does not act on GLP-1 receptors and is not prescribed for common obesity. Its side-effect record is covered on Peptifact's Imcivree side effects page.
Same molecule, diabetes label: off-label use
| Injection | Molecule | Approved (Drugs@FDA) | Label | Its weight-label twin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ozempic | Semaglutide, weekly | 5 December 2017, NDA 209637 | Type 2 diabetes (and related heart and kidney uses) | Wegovy |
| Mounjaro | Tirzepatide, weekly | 13 May 2022, NDA 215866 | Type 2 diabetes | Zepbound |
| Victoza and AP1 generics | Liraglutide, daily | Victoza 2010; eight AP1 generics 2024–2026 | Type 2 diabetes | Saxenda |
A clinician may legally prescribe an approved drug for another use. But the doses, the trials and the insurance rules on these labels are written for diabetes, and the weight trials belong to the twin brand. Ozempic for weight loss and Mounjaro for weight loss set out what that means.
Compounded copies: not approved products
Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are made by pharmacies, not by the drug makers, and are not reviewed by FDA as finished products. Their wide sale rested on the national shortages, which FDA declared resolved on 19 December 2024 (tirzepatide) and 21 February 2025 (semaglutide). What the law still allows, and what has changed for patients, is on compounded GLP-1, compounded semaglutide and compounded tirzepatide vs Zepbound. Clinics also sell compounded GLP-1s with added B12 or other ingredients; those mixtures have no approved equivalent at all.
Clinic shots with no weight approval
| Shot | What the record shows | Full page |
|---|---|---|
| Lipotropic / MIC / "lipo" shots (methionine, inositol, choline, often with B12) | No approved application with methionine, inositol or choline as an active ingredient (Drugs@FDA, read 28 October 2026); no human trial of the injections for weight found in a PubMed and registry census | Lipotropic injections |
| Vitamin B12 shots | Cyanocobalamin injection is approved, for B12 deficiency due to malabsorption — not for weight | Lipotropic injections |
| hCG shots | The chorionic gonadotropin label states: "HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of obesity" (BLA 017067, read 12 November 2026) | Peptifact's hCG diet page |
These are sold by medical spas and weight clinics, sometimes in the same programmes as approved medicines. The register's point is not that every clinic product is unsafe; it is that none of them has the trial record or the FDA review that the three approved injections have.
What is still in trials
Several injections are in late-stage obesity trials or awaiting an FDA decision, and none is approved for anyone: among them CagriSema (filed by Novo Nordisk in December 2025), retatrutide, survodutide and maridebart cafraglutide. Drugs@FDA held no record for cagrilintide, retatrutide or survodutide on 12 November 2026. Their trial status is tracked on new weight-loss drugs, and none should be read as available because it appears in the news. Products sold online under those names are not the trial medicines.
Before choosing anything
- No injection on this page is a cosmetic product. The approved ones carry boxed or class warnings — thyroid C-cell tumours for the GLP-1 medicines, among others — set out on each brand's side-effect page and in GLP-1 side effects.
- Cost varies by route more than by brand. List prices, self-pay programmes and coverage are on GLP-1 cost.
- Non-injected options are on GLP-1 alternatives.
Which of these, if any, suits one person depends on their health, other medicines and history, and that is a decision for a clinician. This register can say what exists and what the FDA record says about it; it cannot say which one to use.
Sources
- Drugs@FDA application records (openFDA drugsfda), read 12 November 2026: NDA 206321 (Saxenda), NDA 215256 (Wegovy), NDA 217806 (Zepbound), NDA 213793 (Imcivree), NDA 209637 (Ozempic), NDA 215866 (Mounjaro); generic liraglutide ANDAs 214568 (Teva, AP2), 217063 (Biocon, AP2), 217234 (Orbicular, AP2) and eight AP1 ANDAs.
- Labels on openFDA, read 12 November 2026: ZEPBOUND (Eli Lilly, effective 28 August 2026), SAXENDA (Novo Nordisk, effective 25 February 2026), IMCIVREE (Rhythm, effective 1 April 2026), WEGOVY injection (indications), chorionic gonadotropin for injection (Fresenius Kabi, BLA 017067, effective 11 April 2025).
- Wilding JPH et al., NEJM 2021, PMID 33567185 (STEP 1). Jastreboff AM et al., NEJM 2022, PMID 35658024 (SURMOUNT-1). Saxenda Study 1 figures from the Saxenda label, section 14.
- FDA shortage resolution dates and compounding records as read and cited on this site's compounding pages; lipotropic census as read on 28 October 2026 on Lipotropic injections; Saxenda discontinuation notice as read on 5 October 2026 on Saxenda.