Semaglutide: doses reported in published research

Sources checked 2026-10-07 · 4 cited studies (4 human, 0 animal, 0 cell culture)

Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist. In the US it is approved only as prescription drugs (OZEMPIC and WEGOVY, plus oral tablets). The doses below come from the FDA labels and published pivotal trials.

Human data: extensive (FDA labels and large phase 3 trials). These describe prescription use under medical supervision.

Studies in people (4)

Human FDA label, OZEMPIC (semaglutide): adults with type 2 diabetes

Dose as reported: Starts at 0.25 mg for 4 weeks, then 0.5 mg; maintenance 0.5, 1 or 2 mg; label maximum 2 mg
Route: Subcutaneous
Frequency / duration: Once weekly

Source wording: Initiate OZEMPIC with a dosage of 0.25 mg injected subcutaneously once weekly for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks on the 0.25 mg dosage, increase the dosage to 0.5 mg once weekly. The recommended maintenance dosage is 0.5 mg, 1 mg, or 2 mg, injected subcutaneously once weekly, based on glycemic control. The maximum recommended dosage is 2 mg once weekly.

FDA-approved prescribing information, OZEMPIC, DailyMed label version 20 (effective 2026-06-01). DailyMed ↗

Human FDA label, WEGOVY (semaglutide), subcutaneous form: chronic weight management and other labeled uses

Dose as reported: Starts at 0.25 mg for 4 weeks, escalated every 4 weeks per the label table; usual maintenance 2.4 mg
Route: Subcutaneous
Frequency / duration: Once weekly

Source wording: Initiate at 0.25 mg once weekly for 4 weeks. Then follow the dosage escalation schedule in Table 1, titrating every 4 weeks to achieve the maintenance dosage. The usual recommended maintenance dosage of WEGOVY injection is 2.4 mg once weekly.

FDA-approved prescribing information, WEGOVY, DailyMed label version 19 (effective 2026-06-18). DailyMed ↗

Human FDA label, WEGOVY (semaglutide) tablets

Dose as reported: Starts at 1.5 mg for 30 days, escalated every 30 days; maintenance 25 mg
Route: Oral
Frequency / duration: Once daily

Source wording: Initiate WEGOVY tablet with a dosage of 1.5 mg once daily for 30 days. Then follow the dosage escalation schedule, titrating every 30 days to achieve the maintenance dosage. The recommended maintenance dosage of WEGOVY tablets is 25 mg orally once daily

FDA-approved prescribing information, WEGOVY, DailyMed label version 19 (effective 2026-06-18). DailyMed ↗

Human 1961 adults with BMI 30 or more (or 27 or more with a related condition), without diabetes; randomized double-blind placebo-controlled phase 3 trial (STEP 1)

Dose as reported: 2.4 mg
Route: Subcutaneous
Frequency / duration: Once weekly for 68 weeks

Source wording: we enrolled 1961 adults randomly assigned them, in a 2:1 ratio, to 68 weeks of treatment with once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide (at a dose of 2.4 mg) or placebo, plus lifestyle intervention.

Wilding JPH, Batterham RL, Calanna S et al.. Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity. N Engl J Med 2021. PubMed PMID 33567185 ↗

Half-life

Human Approximately 1 week (FDA label, OZEMPIC). Source wording: taking into account the long half-life of OZEMPIC of approximately 1 week.
FDA-approved prescribing information, OZEMPIC, DailyMed label version 20 (effective 2026-06-01). DailyMed ↗
Human 145-165 h for semaglutide 2.4 mg when given together with cagrilintide in a phase 1b trial. Source wording: Semaglutide 2·4 mg had a half-life of 145-165 h, with a median tmax of 12-24 h.
Enebo LB, Berthelsen KK, Kankam M et al.. Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of concomitant administration of multiple doses of cagrilintide with semaglutide 2·4 mg for weight management: a randomised, controlled, phase 1b trial. Lancet 2021. PubMed PMID 33894838 ↗

About this page

Every figure above is copied from the cited source; the source wording is shown with each entry. Where a source does not state something, the page says so.
Only abstracts, open-access full texts, registry records and FDA labels were used, so details found only in a paywalled full text may be missing.
This page does not convert doses between species or into other measures, and gives no preparation or handling information.