Wegovy semaglutide tablets.
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novo nordisk He told CNBC that the company is “full steam ahead” preparing to launch Wegovy pills outside the United States, as the battle for supremacy in the weight-loss market becomes global.
“Once we launch, we’ll go all in,” Emil Konshoji Larsen, Novo’s executive vice president of international operations, said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. “That’s a big opportunity.”
Novo announced last week that it plans to first launch the drug outside the U.S. later this year, pending approval, as the pill continues to impress with unprecedented uptake in the United States.
The U.S. market accounts for more than half of Novo and its biggest rival’s sales. Eli Lilly. But companies are now increasingly looking to expand the market for the weight-loss drugs that have revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry in recent years.
Larsen did not mention specific countries in which Novo might first launch Wigovy tablets, saying the drugmaker would “move forward based on availability,” emphasizing factors such as patient interest in obesity treatment, physician training and the presence of potential telemedicine partners.
Larsen said telemedicine was one of the ways to widen access for patients, adding that Germany “had been slow to take off for a while, but suddenly with telemedicine patients were able to receive care in a very convenient and appreciated way.”
Is the conflict between Novo and Lily reaching a new level?
Eli Lilly expects sales to increase 28% this year at the midpoint of its guidance, while Novo expects sales to decline significantly.
Novo slightly raised its outlook last week, but still expects profits and sales to fall 4% to 12% in 2026, hurt by lower prices in the U.S. and generic competition in markets such as India, Canada, Brazil and China.
This is despite Novo launching Wigovy tablets in the US in January, gaining an early lead in oral weight loss drugs. Novo last week announced that its first-quarter sales were much higher than expected despite low prices, with total prescriptions reaching more than 2 million prescriptions.
“In a world that has become so much smaller in terms of social media, digital, emotion, etc., there couldn’t be a better pre-launch,” Larsen said, referring to the U.S. launch. “This is also very exciting for our injectable franchise because it energizes the entire Wegovy brand,” he added.
Nordea analysts said in a note to clients that Wegovy is becoming the No. 1 home weight loss brand in the U.S., based on Google Trends data that matches prescription trends.
Meanwhile, Lilly announced on April 30 that more than 20,000 people have started taking its rival drug, Foundayo, since its launch earlier that month.
Analysts who closely track weekly U.S. prescription data say Foundayo has recorded far fewer prescriptions than Wigovy pills over the same period, according to IQVIA data, which does not capture all prescriptions but provides demand indicators for market watchers.
Lilly CEO David Rix told CNBC late last month that establishing Foundayo as a brand “will take time.” While Foundayo uses a different active ingredient than Lilly’s blockbuster injectables Mounjaro and Zepbound, Novo’s Wegovy tablets are essentially an expansion of the company’s comparable injectables.
“It’s a new brand, a new molecule, so our approach will be a little different,” Ricks said. “This is going to last for quarters, not days…give people a breather and let them execute.”
Barclays analyst Emily Field noted last week that oral Wegovy and Foundayo are aimed at different patient populations, with the former having “injectable-like efficacy” and the latter likely being considered a “starter” GLP-1.
Ricks and Novo CEO Mike Doosder both said the pill is expanding the market rather than significantly capitalizing on demand for injectables.
Released worldwide
The pill format is appealing to many patients and “we believe it will be replicated in our region,” Larsen told CNBC.
Mr Larsen said the “superior efficacy” of Wigovy tablets meant he was not concerned if it was launched after competition in certain markets.
Studies suggest that this pill produces more significant weight loss than Faundayo and has certain cardiovascular benefits, but so far there are no clinical trials that have directly compared the two drugs.
Larsen said Novo expects “very strong uptake” of Wigovy tablets internationally, but it won’t necessarily follow the same curve as in the United States.
He said it’s inappropriate to compare the U.S. to other countries because uptake depends on relative price differences compared to injectables.
“We’re not detailing our pricing approach at this point, but I would say that we have a great product in the U.S., but there’s a different price point compared to injectable treatments.”
He predicted that international sales could have an “optical curve that is probably slightly more bent than the U.S. curve.”
Sidbank analyst Soren Hansen told CNBC on Wednesday that Wegobee’s launch outside the U.S. could be “more selective” and would reflect the company’s “ability to meet demand.” He emphasized that major European markets such as the UK and Germany, as well as Novo’s home country of Denmark, are likely to be launched early.
Larsen told CNBC that Novo is seeing the most increases in obesity GLP-1 from cash-paying customers, not customers covered by national health systems or insurance companies.
“Even in a socialized healthcare system like Denmark, 99% of all patients pay out of pocket. This was unimaginable when we started treating obesity a few years ago,” he added.
In late April, Lilly CEO Ricks told CNBC that the international launch gave the company “a lot of runway.”
“There are one billion people on the planet who could benefit from these drugs…Currently, that number is about 20 million,” he said.
Lilly’s first-quarter revenue outside the U.S. rose 81% to $7.7 billion, driven by a 95% jump in sales volume. U.S. sales for the quarter rose 43% to $12.1 billion. “We’ve found that people around the world like to lose weight,” Ricks says.
President Donald Trump’s so-called most-favored-nation drug pricing policy, which pegs U.S. market prices to prices in a set of reference countries, complicates drug launches for many drug companies.
Novo’s Larsen said how European countries approach drug pricing will not affect co-pay launches.
“Of course, it’s important that European governments also accept funding for high-quality innovations that transform public health, because otherwise, as we’re seeing now, investment, clinical trials, etc. will continue to go to the United States and China,” Larsen said.
