Weight-loss medication, always with medical guidance

Almost every weight-loss medicine prescribed today belongs to the same family: the GLP-1 agonists. They mimic a hormone your gut releases as soon as you eat. You notice sooner that you have had enough, and that feeling lasts longer. Everything described below is a prescription-only medicine, and a doctor first assesses whether it suits you.

Three active substances come up most often. Semaglutide is in Wegovy and in Ozempic. Wegovy is authorised in Europe for weight management, Ozempic for type 2 diabetes, so using Ozempic for weight loss is off-label. Tirzepatide is in Mounjaro and acts on two receptors at once, GIP and GLP-1. Liraglutide, better known as Saxenda, was the first of the group and needs a daily injection rather than one a week.

Something is coming in tablet form too. The Wegovy pill with semaglutide received a European marketing authorisation in July 2026 and is expected in the Netherlands. Orforglipron, which will carry the brand name Foundayo, is still going through registration. For a lot of people the needle is the biggest hurdle, so that will help.

Older, and a different thing entirely, is orlistat, which you may know as Xenical or Alli. It blocks part of the fat you absorb in your gut, so it does not work through your appetite. Which medicine fits you is not a ranking but a medical judgement: your doctor looks at your health, your history and how you respond to a medicine.

No. GLP-1 medication for weight management is not part of the Dutch basic health insurance. In July 2024 the National Health Care Institute advised against adding semaglutide for obesity to the basic package, and the minister followed that advice. While that stands, you pay for treatment yourself.

A reassessment is under way. In November 2025 the Institute announced a phased approach: Wegovy and Mounjaro are being assessed first for the two groups with the highest disease burden, people with a BMI from 30 who have a weight-related condition and people with a BMI from 35. No decision has been made yet. One obesity medicine is reimbursed under conditions, liraglutide (Saxenda), but our doctors do not prescribe it. Your GP can tell you whether you qualify.

Supplementary policies usually do not cover the medication either. What some policies do partly reimburse is a combined lifestyle intervention or a dietitian. Check your policy conditions or call your insurer. Only they know what your policy covers.

We do not state the price of the medicines themselves anywhere on this site. That is not allowed for medicines available on prescription only. If you want to know what a specific medicine costs at the pharmacy, look it up on medicijnkosten.nl, run by the National Health Care Institute. Your own pharmacy can tell you too.

The honest answer: part of the weight often comes back. In the follow-up to the STEP 1 trial, participants regained on average about two thirds of the weight they had lost within a year of stopping. That is not because you are doing something wrong. Once the medicine has left your body, your old hunger returns.

Which is why medication is never the whole story here. The months in which your appetite is quiet are the months you use to build something else: regular meals, more protein, strength training, better sleep. That is what the lifestyle programme and your coach are for. And you do not stop overnight either, you taper off together with your doctor.