Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy is moving from injection to tablet form in France, with the oral version reaching French pharmacies from Monday, Nov. 2. Until now, the obesity drug was administered by injection in the country. Its launch makes it the first GLP-1 class medicine marketed in France in oral form, as Novo Nordisk and U.S. rival Eli Lilly compete in a fast-growing market.
The tablet’s active ingredient is semaglutide. GLP-1 treatments imitate the action of an intestinal hormone that regulates appetite and promotes weight loss. The oral form of Wegovy is already available in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. In France, it is offered on medical prescription to adults with obesity or with overweight plus at least one weight-related comorbidity.
At launch, the pill is not covered by France’s Assurance-maladie health insurance system, and Novo Nordisk has not yet filed a reimbursement request. Patients will therefore pay between €169 and €235 per month depending on the dose. Those prices are lower than the launch prices of the first injectable GLP-1 treatments, which were also sold at unregulated prices before France began reimbursing them in June for the most severe forms of obesity.
Nearly 100,000 patients with overweight or obesity in France already take Wegovy, according to the company. Novo Nordisk said the tablet does not replace the injectable form but offers an additional therapeutic option for patients who were not previously treated. French authorization was based on clinical trial results showing average weight loss of close to 17% with the highest dose after about 15 months of treatment.
Eli Lilly is preparing its own oral obesity treatment, orforglipron, sold as Foundayo. It has been marketed in the United States since April and in the United Kingdom since August, and its arrival in Europe is expected soon. The European Medicines Agency issued a favorable opinion in mid-October, a first step before marketing authorization in the European Union.
Early prescription trends are being closely watched. Alexandre Fauconnier of consultancy Kearney said markets are tracking the first obesity prescription curves for both products very closely. So far, the Wegovy pill has taken a lead, generating more than $480 million, or about €430 million, in sales in the second quarter. By the end of September, more than 5 million prescriptions for the treatment had been delivered in the United States, according to Novo Nordisk. In the United Kingdom, the tablet is selling at an average of more than 65,000 boxes per week.
Eli Lilly, which leads the U.S. injectable obesity segment, is seeking to benefit from Foundayo’s ease of use. The treatment, which recorded $98 million in second-quarter sales, can be swallowed at any time, with or without food. That is a flexibility advantage over the competing pill, which must be taken each morning on an empty stomach with a little water, at least 30 minutes before eating, drinking or taking other medicines.
The anti-obesity drug market is estimated to exceed $100 billion by 2030, and both companies are working on next-generation treatments. Planned improvements include efficacy, tolerability, spacing out doses and preserving muscle mass. Lilly is developing retatrutide, a molecule that activates three hormone receptors: GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon. Novo Nordisk is developing CagriSema, which combines semaglutide with another active ingredient, cagrilintide.
In the meantime, Novo Nordisk is also launching a high-dose injectable version of Wegovy at 7.2 mg in France on Monday to broaden its offering. In France, the medical and socioeconomic cost of obesity is estimated at €18 billion per year, according to consultancy Asterès, which was commissioned by Novo Nordisk.
Sources: Le Monde Sciences.