Novo Nordisk launched the first GLP-1 weight-loss pill Monday with a pledge that manufacturing investments will enable the drugmaker to avoid the type of shortages that plagued the rollout of its injectable version.
The company said doctors can now prescribe the new oral version of Wegovy and patients can pick it up at more than 70,000 pharmacies and via mail-order services throughout the country.
The starting dose of the once-daily pill costs $150 a month for patients without insurance coverage, while the largest dose — on which patients lose the most weight — will be available by the end of the week for $300 a month. For those with employer insurance coverage, the company says it will cost as little as $25 a month.
By introducing the semaglutide-based tablet, the Danish drugmaker is aiming to avoid a pitfall that has cut into sales of its two leading injectable drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy: churning out enough of the medicine to keep up with patient demand. Novo Nordisk executives say they are confident they’ll have enough pills, pointing to the scale of the launch: The pill will be available in pharmacies like CVS and Costco, on telehealth platforms that have partnered with the company, and on Novo Nordisk’s own direct-to-consumer service.
“We are launching the Wegovy pill in a way that we’ve never launched before,” Dave Moore, an executive vice president who heads Novo Nordisk’s U.S. operations, said in an interview. “We have the benefit now of living through multiple launches of our GLP-1s,” he said. “So we’re prepared, we’re ready to go.”
The Wegovy pill was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last month to treat obesity and lower cardiovascular risk, touching off a new phase of the GLP-1 weight-loss era with a version that doesn’t require a jab. It is a moment Novo Nordisk has spent years preparing for: The Wegovy pill is being made end-to-end at a manufacturing hub in Clayton, North Carolina, that is halfway through a $4 billion expansion, according to the company.
Novo Nordisk is counting on the heavy manufacturing investment to avoid a repeat of what happened when it couldn’t keep up with demand for its other semaglutide-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy: The FDA designated them in shortage for more than two years, opening the door for compounding pharmacies to make cheaper, off-brand versions and seize a sizable shareof the market. It is also aiming to avoid losing ground to its main rival, Eli Lilly, which is seeking regulatory approval for its own GLP-1 weight-loss pill.
Eli Lilly has steadily overtaken Novo Nordisk’s lead in the injectable weight-loss market with its tirzepatide-based drug Zepbound. Now it is emphasizing the convenience of its experimental pill, orforglipron, which — unlike Wegovy — doesn’t come with limitations on eating and drinking.
Though both companies are offering the same price for their lowest dose, Novo Nordisk has priced the Wegovy pill’s largest doses $100 less than the larger doses of orforglipron that Eli Lilly has publicly announced for patients paying cash.
“We felt like that was the right price, roughly $5 a day for an introduction to an oral GLP-1,” Novo Nordisk’s Moore said of the cost of the lowest dose. He emphasized how much weight participants in a clinical trial lost — 14 percent on the highest dose over 64 weeks, or an estimated 17 percent if they’d all stayed on the treatment protocol — which is comparable to the injectable version. “Injection-like efficacy in a pill,” Moore said.
Novo Nordisk is hoping its pill will reach millions more people with obesity that have opted not to try a GLP-1 shot. “Maybe it was they just didn’t see themselves treating their disease with an injection,” Moore said.
Novo Nordisk shares rose more than 5 percent Monday and are up about 15 percent since the FDA approved the Wegovy pill on Dec. 22.
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