BEIJING, June 16 (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk plans to apply for Chinese regulatory approval for its Wegovy weight-loss pill “very soon”, its chief executive said on Tuesday, in an effort to catch up with rival Eli Lilly in the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical market.
Danish Novo and US-based Lilly believe weight-loss pills can attract patients reluctant to use injections and are racing to expand the use of drugs that have transformed obesity treatment and reshaped the global pharmaceutical industry.
“We’re going to submit oral Wegovy… for regulatory approval very 🏽 soon… I would say within a few months,” Mike Doustdar, on his first visit to China since taking over as Novo’s chief executive in August, told reporters.
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Competition in China has intensified in recent years, with the entry into the market of Pfizer and local companies, including Innovent Biologics.
Doustdar said he expects competition from generic manufacturers starting in the second quarter of next year.
The patent for semaglutide, the active ingredient in blockbusters Novo, Wegovy and Ozempic, expired in China in March, although the company has regulatory data protection until early next year.
“A barrier to entry for the[weight loss]pill will also be the scale of production, the way we are able to do it. And I think very few of our competitors will be able to reach that level, to have those capabilities,” he said.
Novo received early approval in the US and UK for its Wegovy tablet and launched it in the US this year. Lilly quickly followed, securing U.S. approval in April for its oral drug orforglipron.
In China, Lilly was the first to act. The company reported in March that it submitted an application to commercialize the once-daily dose of orforglipron to the Chinese regulatory body at the end of 2025.
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The competing drugs belong to a class known as GLP-1 drugs.
The market share of weight-loss drugs in China is opaque, with companies such as Innovent and Lilly not disclosing sales figures.
Sales of GLP-1 treatments in China through major e-commerce platforms Alibaba and JD.com totaled about 1.4 billion yuan ($207 million) in the first quarter, according to Jefferies.
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(Reporting by Andrew Silver)
