The US authorities have approved a tablet form of the popular weight loss drug Wegovy, which will be the first daily oral medication for obesity. It provided US Food and Drug Administration approval that gave Danish drug firm Novo Nordisk an advantage over competitor Eli Lilly to make its obesity pill widely available. Lilly’s oral drug, orforglipron, is pending review.
These are GLP-1 agonist medications. Both of them are similar to commonly used injections in stimulating a natural hormone that regulates appetite and a sense of fullness.
A Pill: The version Expected To Be Used
In the last few years, the injectable drug Wegovy by Novo Nordisk and Zepbound by Eli Lilly have transformed the treatment of obesity worldwide, including in America, where 100 million citizens are currently battling the chronic condition.
The availability of oral pills for the treatment of obesity may help extend the rapidly growing market for the treatment and management of obese patients. Approximately one in eight Americans has used an injectable GLP-1 medication, reports a nonprofit research organisation concerned with health policy. However, far more people have difficulty paying for such an expensive treatment option.
Pills Could Be Much Cheaper Than Injections
The Novo Nordisk obesity pill contains 25 mg of semaglutide, the same active ingredient in the injected medications Wegovy, Ozempic, and the lower-strength diabetes medication Rybelsus, which comes in oral form. The side effects of all GLP-1 drugs, whether oral or injectable, are similar and include nausea and diarrhea.
Since it is cheaper to make pills compared to preparing drugs given through injections, this could mean that the cost of the new oral drugs is lower. Also this year, the Trump administration reported that government officials had assisted pharmacies in negotiating reduced pricing for the costly GLP-1 medications, which at times cost more than $1,000 monthly.
Under an agreement reached in November with the Trump administration, Novo and Lilly said they would charge US Medicare and Medicaid patients and uninsured individuals who lack insurance coverage for the treatment, as well as commercial patients, $149 per month for starter packs of their obesity formulations, provided they are approved.
Whether the patient would prefer a daily pill or a weekly injection remains uncertain. While some patients may find injections unpleasant, other patients do not mind the weekly injections, according to obesity specialists.
Novo Focusing on Cash-Paying Consumers
One of the most important elements in ensuring success in selling the pharmaceutical products will involve targeting those consumers who are able to pay cash. US Novo executive David Moore added that they would offer the drug to self-pay patients “from day one for US patients”.
Novo has plans to introduce the drug Wegovy via various means, such as pharmacy and online and telemedicine partners, because patients can start care without waiting for insurance approval, according to Novo. Cash-paying consumers are targeted to try to rekindle Novo’s faltering sales and turbocharge the next phase of growth for the market as a whole.
Since mid-2024, Novo has suffered an extraordinary loss of market capitalisation of hundreds of billions of dollars. MR. Welker: We’ve never launched a product like this before. In the past, the mentality has been more, “the product is out there, wait for the insurers to get it covered, and it’s going to the retail pharmacy,” Mr Moore.
Novo is also facing increasing challenges from the competitor for Lilly’s obesity treatment, Zepbound, also known as Mounjaro outside the US market, as well as from more affordable compounded versions of semaglutide, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Wegovy injection and tablets.
Lilly is waiting for approval of its weight loss drug from the FDA, which is expected anytime after March. The company itself doesn’t think that the drug will erode its injectable drug Wegovy. Analysts also think that the oral GLP-1 drugs won’t replace injectables, so the pills might capture at least 20 per cent of the obesity drug market in 2030.
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