GLP-1 Drugs and Medications: The Full List, Compared

GLP-1 drugs, also searched as GLP-1 medications, are a small class with confusing naming: few ingredients, many brands. This page lists the current approved medicines, compares ingredient, brand and schedule in one table, and separates the approved list clearly from the investigational drugs still in development.

The full current list at a glance

Strip away the brand noise and the approved class is compact. Two modern ingredients dominate: semaglutide and tirzepatide, each sold under two injection brands, plus an oral semaglutide tablet. Behind them sits liraglutide, an older daily ingredient. Everything else people read about, the next generation pills and multi hormone injections, is investigational and gets its own separated section at the end of this page.

Schedules explain much of the class history. Liraglutide is cleared faster, so it is injected daily. Semaglutide, with a half-life of about 1 week, and tirzepatide, with a half-life of about 5 days, were engineered for once weekly dosing, which is a large part of why they became the standard. The detailed schedules live on the dosage chart pages, including semaglutide dosage chart, tirzepatide dosage chart, semaglutide dose schedule and tirzepatide dose schedule.

Semaglutide brands: Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus

Ozempic is the diabetes brand, approved to improve blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes and to reduce the risk of kidney disease progression in type 2 diabetes with chronic kidney disease, with doses up to 2 mg weekly. Wegovy is the weight management brand, approved for adults with obesity or overweight with a weight related condition, for adolescents aged 12 and older, and for reducing cardiovascular risk in adults with cardiovascular disease and obesity or overweight. Its maintenance dose is 2.4 mg weekly, or 1.7 mg if 2.4 mg is not tolerated. Same ingredient, different labels, different pens and different dose ceilings.

Rybelsus is the approved oral semaglutide tablet for type 2 diabetes. It is taken on an empty stomach with a small amount of water, waiting at least 30 minutes before food or other medicines, rules that reflect how hard it is for this ingredient to be absorbed by mouth. The oral pages, oral semaglutide, is there an Ozempic pill and GLP-1 pills, untangle the tablet facts from the drops and unapproved products sold with similar language.

Tirzepatide brands: Mounjaro and Zepbound

Tirzepatide activates two receptors, GLP-1 and GIP, which sets it apart from semaglutide's single pathway. Mounjaro is its diabetes brand, with doses up to 15 mg weekly. Zepbound is its weight management brand, approved for adults with obesity or overweight with a weight related condition, and for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity. Both start at 2.5 mg and increase by 2.5 mg steps at intervals of at least 4 weeks, with Zepbound maintenance at 5, 10 or 15 mg weekly.

In SURMOUNT-1, tirzepatide produced an average weight loss of 20.9 percent at the 15 mg dose at 72 weeks, while semaglutide 2.4 mg produced an average of 14.9 percent at 68 weeks in STEP 1. Those are separate trials, not a head to head comparison, and they do not by themselves choose a medicine for any person. Tolerability, conditions, coverage and prescriber judgment all sit inside a real decision, which is why comparison pages such as semaglutide vs tirzepatide, Ozempic vs Mounjaro and Mounjaro vs Zepbound exist on this site.

Shared class facts every brand carries

All of these medicines are prescription only, and all carry the class boxed warning about thyroid C cell tumors, with a contraindication for people with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2 syndrome. The GLP-1 and thyroid page explains that warning in plain language. Labels advise stopping semaglutide at least 2 months before a planned pregnancy, covered in GLP-1 and pregnancy. Slow dose increases, weekly routines and side effect patterns are also shared, which is why class level tools such as the GLP-1 dose schedule calculator work across brands.

Compounded semaglutide and compounded tirzepatide are not additional approved drugs on this list. They are pharmacy made products, not FDA approved and not generics, advertised at typical starting prices of about $249 and about $379 a month. They are covered, with cautions, in the cost cluster starting at GLP-1 cost, and they should never be confused with the approved brands above when comparing safety information or trial results.

Investigational drugs: clearly separated

Two names dominate the future pipeline and have their own pages, kept separate from the approved list on purpose. Retatrutide is an investigational multi hormone injection that is not FDA approved, covered in retatrutide weight loss, retatrutide dosage and retatrutide side effects. Orforglipron, associated with the name Foundayo, is an investigational oral drug covered in orforglipron weight loss. A once daily oral weight management direction also appears in the Wegovy pill page, which verifies approval status before stating it.

Until a drug is approved with a published label, there is no confirmed dose schedule for patients, no established price and no approved use, whatever early trial headlines suggest. Products sold online today using investigational names are not the studied drug in any verified sense. The approved list above is the whole of what a prescriber can offer now, and this page will keep the two groups separated as statuses change. Background on the class itself is in what is GLP-1 and how does GLP-1 work.

How prescribers choose between them

Choice between these medicines is rarely about a single number. A prescriber weighs the primary goal, diabetes control, weight management, or another approved use such as sleep apnea or cardiovascular risk reduction, because approvals differ and insurance usually follows approvals. They weigh tolerability history, since the class shares digestive side effects but individuals respond differently, and practical factors such as weekly versus daily dosing, needle comfort, supply reliability and, unavoidably, cost and coverage, which the cost cluster on this site covers in depth.

Switching within the class also happens, for example from a diabetes brand to a weight management brand, or between ingredients when response or tolerability disappoints, always as a prescriber led change with its own dose schedule rather than a dose for dose swap. There is no patient level conversion table between these medicines, and any source offering one should be treated with caution. The safe general rule is that ingredient, brand and dose are a single package from the label, and the comparison pages on this site exist to inform the conversation, never to replace it.

Names you may hear that are not separate drugs

Several names in everyday conversation are the same medicines wearing different clothes. People say the ingredient, the brand, or a shorthand like the diabetes pen or the weight pen, and mean one product. Compounded products borrow ingredient names too, which is why a vial labeled with an ingredient name is not the brand medicine of the same name. Even this page's own terms, GLP-1 drugs and GLP-1 medications, are one class described twice. When reading any claim, translate it back to ingredient, brand and approval status using the table above, and most confusion, including most marketing confusion, dissolves on contact.

The bottom line on the list

The approved class is small, well defined and fully listed above. Two modern ingredients, five main brands between them, one older daily ingredient, and a clear line before the investigational names. Learn those few names properly and the whole noisy market becomes readable, because every product, post and promise can be placed against the list in seconds.

Frequently asked questions

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