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The US drug regulator approved a daily pill version of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy injection, giving the Danish drugmaker a head start as the first to market in the next big competitive frontier in weight-loss treatments.
The company said it is manufacturing the drug and expects to be ready for a full launch in early January. Rival Eli Lilly is also expected to soon receive regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its pill version of popular injectable Zepbound, after announcing positive results from its latest trial last week.
Dave Moore, executive vice-president of US operations at Novo Nordisk, said: “We are confident that the expansion of Wegovy to a pill will help patients who may have not sought or accepted treatment before.”
Researchers have spent decades investigating how to bring weight-loss pills to market, which could be easier to sell than injectables that some consumers find off-putting. Pfizer, Amgen and Roche have all scrapped potential obesity pills after disappointing trials in recent years.
Novo Nordisk’s early achievement will help it win back market share from rival Eli Lilly. The Denmark-based company last month said it expected sales growth to be at the lower end of its guidance this year because of lower than expected sales of Wegovy and its tandem diabetes treatment, Ozempic.
Meanwhile, Lilly has continued to benefit from surging consumer demand for its weight-loss drugs, with purchases for the treatment more than doubling in the most recent quarter thanks to strong sales in new markets.
Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss pill contains semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic. Lilly’s weight-loss pill contains orforglipron, while the active ingredient in its weight-loss injectable Zepbound is tirzepatide.
The Wegovy pill was effective at an average weight loss of about 17 per cent of body weight at 64 weeks, compared to Eli Lilly’s average reduction of 20.2 per cent at 72 weeks.
The Wegovy pill will be available at $149 a month after the company negotiated with Donald Trump’s administration to cut prices for obesity drugs. The White House last month said Eli Lilly’s pill would cost $346 a month through TrumpRx but future pills would also be priced at $149 a month.
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