{"id":53381,"date":"2026-04-01T15:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/53381\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:50:11","slug":"eli-lillys-obesity-pill-approved-by-fda-setting-up-competition-with-novo-nordisk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/53381\/","title":{"rendered":"Eli Lilly\u2019s obesity pill approved by FDA, setting up competition with Novo Nordisk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eli Lilly\u2019s obesity pill was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday, setting it up for fierce competition against Novo Nordisk\u2019s new Wegovy pill<\/a> as more people seek alternatives to GLP-1 injections.<\/p>\n

Lilly\u2019s drug, which is called orforglipron and will be marketed as Foundayo, was approved under the FDA\u2019s new commissioner\u2019s voucher program<\/a>, which grants speedy reviews to drugs that are aligned with national health priorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Novo and Lilly led the growth of the obesity drug market with the injectable GLP-1 medications Wegovy and Zepbound. The drugmakers are now headed into a new era with pills. While the oral treatments are generally seen to be less effective than the injectables, they\u2019re still expected to have wide appeal since many people don\u2019t want to use needles and the pills can be easily distributed and don\u2019t require cold storage.<\/p>\n

Investors are hoping that orforglipron will be a major growth catalyst for Lilly. The Wegovy pill, as an oral peptide that\u2019s harder for the body to absorb, must be taken in the morning at least 30 minutes before any food or drinks other than water, restrictions that can be unappealing to many people. Orfgorplipron doesn\u2019t carry any such restrictions.<\/p>\n

However, with a head start following the Wegovy pill\u2019s approval in December, Novo has seen rapid adoption of its pill, which may dent the uptake of Lilly\u2019s drug.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tSTAT Plus: Eli Lilly\u2019s \u2018triple-G\u2019 drug leads to significant blood sugar, weight reductions in diabetes trial<\/a><\/p>\n

Price will be a big factor in the competition. Lilly last year said it plans to sell its pill at prices from $149 a month to $399 a month in the cash market, where patients buy drugs directly without using insurance. But Novo then launched the Wegovy pill at a cash price of up to $299 a month, undercutting Lilly. Now, Lilly has slightly lowered its pricing, saying on Wednesday that it will sell the pill at up to $349 a month.<\/p>\n

In terms of efficacy, the Wegovy pill led<\/a> to 13.6% weight loss in a 64-week Phase 3 trial, slightly more than the 11.2% weight loss that orforglipron showed<\/a> in its 72-week study.<\/p>\n

Novo has also argued that there\u2019s much more evidence of the safety of its pill, since it contains the same ingredient as injectable Wegovy, which has been on the market for several years. The pill is also approved to cut the risk of cardiovascular complications, since the injection had been proven effective for such treatment in a large study.<\/p>\n

Lilly\u2019s pill, a small molecule, was shown to be generally safe in its trials, with the most common side effects being nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, similar to other GLP-1 drugs. With small molecules, researchers are always concerned about the risk of liver damage, since those types of drugs are metabolized in the liver, but orforgrlipron didn\u2019t show liver risks in its studies.<\/p>\n

However, the voucher program that the pill was approved through has been controversial, with agency insiders saying<\/a> it\u2019s been a vehicle for political interference. Lilly received a voucher as part of its deal<\/a> with the White House to lower the prices of its obesity drugs in certain settings.\u00a0
Afterwards, Reuters reported<\/a> that Lilly tried to pressure the agency to deliver a faster answer on whether it considers Lilly\u2019s applications complete. A Lilly spokesperson told Reuters the company expected the FDA to conduct a fulsome review of the drug and make a science-based decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eli Lilly\u2019s obesity pill was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday, setting it up for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[271],"tags":[2759,276,272,357,358,359,280],"class_list":["post-53381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-novo-nordisk","tag-biotechnology","tag-eli-lilly","tag-novo-nordisk","tag-obesity","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-stat","tag-weight-loss"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116330248649523066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}