Still, the company looks set to turn the tide in the battle over weight loss drugs. Here’s why.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk and the oral GLP-1 weight loss market<\/p>\n
There are two key reasons why Novo Nordisk<\/a> can emerge victorious in the race to commercialize an oral version of a GLP-1<\/a> weight loss drug — the currently approved drugs are injectables.<\/p>\n First, it’s the first in line to be approved, with a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision due in the fourth quarter of this year. In contrast,\u00a0Eli Lilly<\/a> plans to submit oral weight loss drug orforglipron for regulatory review in obesity in late 2025, and for type 2 diabetes in late 2026.<\/p>\n Second, based on the current data, Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy appears to have the edge over orforglipron in obesity. The company recently published results for the phase 3 (OASIS-4) trial, which demonstrated an efficacy and safety advantage over Eli Lilly’s orforglipron.<\/p>\n Company<\/p>\n Drug (oral for weight loss)<\/p>\n Trial<\/p>\n Discontinuation rate due to adverse effects (treated)<\/p>\n Discontinuation rate due to adverse effects (placebo)<\/p>\n Body weight change<\/p>\n Novo Nordisk<\/p>\n semaglutide (oral Wegovy)<\/p>\n OASIS-4<\/p>\n 6.9%<\/p>\n 5.9%<\/p>\n 16.6%<\/p>\n Eli Lilly<\/p>\n orforglipron<\/p>\n ATTAIN-1<\/p>\n 10.3%*<\/p>\n 2.6%<\/p>\n 12.4%*<\/p>\n Data source: Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk presentations. *At the highest dosage.<\/p>\n Where next for Novo Nordisk?<\/p>\n All told, if Novo Nordisk can secure oral Wegovy approval first and continue to demonstrate superiority in the lab, while avoiding any operational mishaps, the company looks well-positioned to prosper in 2026.<\/p>\n Lee Samaha<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest data from the company’s oral weight loss drug is bullish for the stock. Novo Nordisk (NVO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-177683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}