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Semaglutide
The supporting cluster: where semaglutide wins, where it does not, and what each costs.
This site is about tirzepatide. Semaglutide is here because it is the alternative every reader is implicitly comparing against, and because in one randomized head-to-head trial the two were measured directly: tirzepatide produced roughly 20% mean body-weight reduction at 72 weeks versus roughly 14% for semaglutide.
Semaglutide still wins on coverage breadth, cardiovascular outcome evidence, an oral formulation and price. Those are real advantages, and this section states them rather than burying them.
Semaglutide and tirzepatide
Tirzepatide vs Semaglutide
One randomized trial compared them directly. Tirzepatide won on weight; the rest is nuance.
Switching to Tirzepatide
You restart the ladder. What you do not do is convert your dose across.
Compounded Semaglutide Cost
The cheaper molecule, with a smaller effect size in the head-to-head.
Semaglutide Dosage
A different ladder, the same four-week logic.
Semaglutide Side Effects
Same family, similar burden, slightly different distribution.
Ozempic vs Wegovy
The semaglutide equivalent of the Mounjaro and Zepbound distinction.
Wegovy vs Zepbound
Two approved weight-management products, one head-to-head trial between their molecules.
Semaglutide vs Tirzepatide Cost
Put the head-to-head result and the annual price difference in the same sentence.
Oral Semaglutide
A tablet exists for one molecule and not the other, and the fasting requirements matter.
Choosing Semaglutide Over Tirzepatide
Three situations where the molecule with the smaller effect size is the better clinical choice.
Compounded Semaglutide Safety
The molecule is not the risk. The supply chain is.
Semaglutide Results Timeline
A 68-week curve, a plateau, and the point where most real-world patients stop.
Semaglutide Cost Without Insurance
The cheaper molecule, with the same pricing traps.
Managing Semaglutide Side Effects
Nausea, constipation, diarrhoea and reflux — and what actually shortens them.
Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes
The strongest argument for the molecule that loses on weight.
Semaglutide Maintenance and Stopping
Appetite returns first. Then the weight.
Semaglutide vs Tirzepatide Side Effects
Similar overall burden, one consistent difference, and no reliable way to predict your own experience.
Semaglutide Contraindications
The same two absolutes as tirzepatide, and a similar list of histories that change the conversation.
Ozempic Cost
The diabetes label is the cheapest thing about it.
Wegovy Cost
The weight-management label, and the coverage exclusion that comes with it.
Semaglutide Dosage Chart
Five steps to 2.4 mg, four weeks apart, and the same rule about starter doses.
Semaglutide Injection and Storage
Same three sites, same refrigeration rule, different room-temperature windows.
Semaglutide Plateau
The STEP curves flatten too. Here is how to tell a plateau from three flat weeks.
Oral Semaglutide vs Injection
A tablet exists, with conditions attached that decide whether it works for you.
Primary sources
Clinical, dosing and regulatory statements on this page rest on the documents below. Links go to the publisher, not to a summary of it. Prices are not sourced here — they carry a verification date instead, and the reason is set out in the source ledger.
- ZEPBOUND (tirzepatide) full prescribing information — DailyMed, US National Library of Medicine. Dose ladder, contraindications, warnings, storage.
- FDA’s concerns with unapproved GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss — US Food and Drug Administration. Compounded GLP-1 risks, API import alert, cold-chain complaints.
- FD&C Act provisions that apply to human drug compounding — US Food and Drug Administration. Why a compounded preparation is lawful without being FDA-approved.
- Tirzepatide once weekly for the treatment of obesity (SURMOUNT-1) — N Engl J Med 2022;387:205-216. Registration NCT04184622. The weight-reduction and adverse-event figures used across this site.
- The full source ledger — every primary source, what it supports, the date we read it, and the claims we deliberately do not source.