What is semaglutide used for?

The indication belongs to the label, not the molecule

This is the distinction that makes semaglutide confusing to look up. Ozempic is the injectable authorised for glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes; Wegovy is the injectable authorised for chronic weight management; Rybelsus is the oral tablet authorised for type 2 diabetes. Same active molecule, different authorised uses, different dosing ceilings. Asking what semaglutide is approved for without naming the label produces an answer that is true of no actual product.

What the trials measured

• Weight — the STEP programme. STEP 1 reported average weight loss of 14.9% at 2.4 mg over 68 weeks; STEP 3, which paired the drug with intensive behavioural therapy, reported 16.0%.
• Glycaemic control — the SUSTAIN programme, which supported the 2017 type 2 diabetes approval and reported A1C reductions in the 1–2% range.
• Cardiovascular events — SELECT, in 17,604 adults with obesity or overweight and established cardiovascular disease but without diabetes.
• Oral administration — the PIONEER programme, which supported the first oral GLP-1 agonist to reach market.

Those are separate questions with separate endpoints. A trial that measured cardiovascular events did not measure weight as its primary outcome, and reading across them as though they were one body of evidence overstates what any single one established.

Approved for something is not studied for everything

The gap runs the other way here from most of this site. For an unapproved research peptide the risk is a marketed claim outrunning a thin literature. For semaglutide the literature is enormous, and the risk is assuming that breadth of approval transfers to any use someone has in mind. An indication is a specific population, a specific endpoint and a specific dose ceiling that a regulator examined — not a general endorsement of the molecule.

What none of it says about a research vial

Every indication above attaches to a manufactured, inspected product supplied at a defined concentration. A vial sold on the research market carries no indication, no approval and no regulatory examination of what is in it. The trial evidence describes what the molecule did under those conditions; it does not describe what is in an unapproved vial.