Novo CEO details global strategy for launches of weight loss drug Wegovy
Novo Nordisk will target launches of its mega popular obesity shot Wegovy in markets where it already has strong sales of its older weight-loss drug Saxenda, CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said, as it faces growing competition from US rival Eli Lilly.
Lilly won approval in November in the US, Britain and the EU for its obesity drug Zepbound, and Novo and Lilly’s drugs are the most effective treatments for weight loss approved to date.
In his first detailed comments on how competition is affecting his company’s strategy for its Wegovy blockbuster weekly injection, Jorgensen said the Danish drugmaker is watching Lilly’s launches. “I think most likely they have a situation like ours where they’re building capacity and have to look at tactics market by market,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.
“They I’m sure look at what we do, and we will be looking at what they do. That’s how competition plays out.”
Jorgensen previously welcomed competition, saying there is room for multiple drugs in the obesity drug market, which analysts predict could be worth more than $100bn by 2030.
Novo on Wednesday forecast another year of double-digit growth as it boosted US supplies of Wegovy. The company is now going head-to-head against Lilly’s drug in the US and Germany, and Lilly said last week it will launch in Britain “within weeks”.
In January Lilly also launched its weight-loss drug — sold as Mounjaro in Europe — in Poland, where Novo has not yet rolled out Wegovy. Jorgensen said he was not aware that Lilly had launched in Poland.
Novo has launched Wegovy in eight countries including Germany and Britain since its debut in the US in 2021, with its most recent launches in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It will debut Wegovy in Japan, its first Asian market, in February.
Jorgensen said the decision to launch in Switzerland and the UAE was driven to an extent by Novo obesity business being established in those countries.
“It’s easier to start there, compared to markets say where we do not have strong Saxenda sales,” he said.
Saxenda, Novo’s older and less effective weight-loss drug, has seen a jump in sales since Wegovy fell into shortage after its launch in the US.
Jorgensen reiterated that launches of Wegovy in more European countries, which tend to have single-payer public health systems, will be “controlled”.
Novo aims to sign agreements with European governments to guarantee some supply goes to the most vulnerable patients who cannot afford to pay out of pocket.
A major hurdle though is producing enough to meet ferocious demand. Eli Lilly has declined to say how much Zepbound and Mounjaro it can make in 2024 as it expands its North Carolina plant, turns to contract manufacturers and builds a plant in Germany.
One dose of Zepbound has been in shortage in January, though the company predicted that would end in February.
New US prescriptions for Zepbound hit 25,000 a week at the end of December.
About 54,150 new US prescriptions for Wegovy were written for the week to January 19, down from a peak of 135,000 in May, according to data from healthcare data firm IQVIA reviewed by Reuters.
On Wednesday, the Danish drugmaker said it is more than doubling US deliveries of lower doses compared with recent months, the first sign of progress in easing shortages after a yearlong effort to ramp up output.
But it still expects periodic shortages.