A real-world study shows that patients who switched from injection to Novo Nordisk Wegovy oral medication lost more weight.

Patrick Wingrove

Reuters, September 30 - Data presented Wednesday at a medical conference shows that patients who switched from weight loss injections to Novo Nordisk's (Novo Nordisk) once-daily NOVOb.CO Wegovy pill continued to lose weight. The Danish pharmaceutical company is working to defend its lead over American rival Eli Lilly (LLY.N) in the oral weight loss treatment market.

Study participants who switched from injectable weight loss therapies (including Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound) to oral semaglutide (the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic) lost an average of 4.1% of their body weight within three months.

After switching from injectable weight loss drugs to oral semaglutide (the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic), patients reduced from a baseline weight of 221.6 pounds (100.5 kilograms) by an average of 4.0 kilograms (8.8 pounds); after three months, the proportion of participants classified as clinically obese fell from 87.1% to 65.5%, with nearly 41% of patients losing at least 5% of their body weight.

“There have always been many questions about whether patients can stick to taking the oral medication and whether they actually prefer it. It is clear that many patients do even better with the pill than with the injections, and I think this is compelling data,” Novo Nordisk Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange said in an interview.

The detailed data from this real-world study involving 194 patients was presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Milan.

The oral pill has been a game changer for Novo Nordisk

Since the launch of Wegovy injectable for weight loss in 2021, which made the company the largest listed in Europe by market value, Novo Nordisk's fortunes have changed dramatically. As Eli Lilly overtook Novo Nordisk as the leader in the obesity drug market, its share price has plunged more than 70% from its peak.

Their situation has improved, however, with the launch of the Wegovy oral pill. According to a company briefing earlier this month, after the launch, oral therapies now account for about one-third of the U.S. prescription obesity market, with Novo Nordisk capturing more than 80% of new oral prescriptions.

Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar told Reuters last week (link) that weight loss drugs could account for half of the global obesity drug market, and analysts estimate this market could be worth $100 billion annually or more by the end of this decade.

The data was compiled in collaboration with U.S. telemedicine company Ro. While real-world studies reflect actual clinical practice, they partly rely on patient self-reporting and cannot establish direct causality in the same way as randomized trials.

The Wegovy weight loss pill is now available in the U.S., the UK, Germany, and the UAE, with plans to enter more markets in the coming quarters.

(To facilitate non-English speakers, Reuters has automated the translation of its reports into several other languages. Because automated translations may contain errors or lack necessary context, Reuters does not guarantee the accuracy of this automated text and provides it solely for reader convenience. Reuters assumes no responsibility for any damage or loss caused by the use of automated translation.)