In this article LLY NOVO.B-DK Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Aykut Karahan | Istock | Getty Images Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up. Good afternoon! Several drugmakers are hurrying to capitalize on one of the next major innovations coming to the booming weight loss drug market: effective, convenient and potentially affordable obesity pills.
Most of the weight loss and diabetes drugs available now are weekly injections, such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro. They are among medications called GLP-1 agonists, which have skyrocketed in popularity over the last year. Now the pair and other drugmakers such as Pfizer are hoping to develop oral weight loss and diabetes drugs that are more convenient for patients to take and easier to manufacture at scale.
That may help alleviate the supply shortages plaguing the existing injectable treatments in the U.S. Pills are also typically cheaper than injections, but it's unclear if that will be the case with oral obesity drugs.
Novo Nordisk has a low-dose oral version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, that costs $968.52 per month before insurance and other rebates. That pill, marketed as Rybelsus, is approved for diabetes treatment.
The current injections all have list prices of around $1,000 per month. Pfizer on Thursday signaled that it is still in the running to develop an obesity pill aft.
