Novo Nordisk hasn’t had the last word, though, and it is now working hard to regain its lead in this fast-growing space. Can it pull it off this year? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n
![\"Patient](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768354871_519_.jpeg\"\/)
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Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk’s best shot<\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk recently got an important win that could help it regain market share<\/a>. An oral version of Wegovy has now earned the green light in the U.S.<\/p>\n Oral Wegovy could attract significantly more patients. Here are three reasons why.<\/p>\n First, it’s essential to consider price factors. Patients will likely pay between $149 and $299 out of pocket per month for oral Wegovy. Zepbound — marketed by Eli Lilly — costs as much as $1,000, although many, even without insurance, end up paying far less.<\/p>\n Still, Novo Nordisk’s new launch will almost certainly be less expensive, on average. At a lower price, many people will accept a lower (but still competitive) efficacy.<\/p>\n Second, many will also opt for oral pills over needles. Third, since pills are easier to manufacture, Novo Nordisk could reach a far greater number of patients with oral Wegovy.<\/p>\n If all goes well, the company could succeed in expanding the market altogether and capturing a bigger slice of it, potentially regaining the lead from Eli Lilly.<\/p>\n It might not be enough<\/p>\n Eli Lilly also seems to be close to earning approval for its own oral weight loss medicine, orforglipron. It aced phase 3 studies<\/a> across obesity and weight management last year. What’s more, orforglipron earned a new voucher from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that will allow for a much shorter review time — one to two months versus the usual 10 to 12 months.<\/p>\n Today’s Change<\/p>\n (-0.47%) $-0.28<\/p>\n Current Price<\/p>\n $59.58<\/p>\n Key Data Points<\/p>\n Market Cap<\/p>\n $202B<\/p>\n Day’s Range<\/p>\n $59.15 – $60.57<\/p>\n 52wk Range<\/p>\n $43.08 – $93.80<\/p>\n Volume<\/p>\n 719K<\/p>\n Avg Vol<\/p>\n 18M<\/p>\n Gross Margin<\/p>\n 81.93%<\/p>\n Dividend Yield<\/p>\n 2.88%<\/p>\n Having submitted an application to the FDA for orforglipron late last year, we can expect Eli Lilly to earn approval for it by the end of February, unless there is a problem with the data, or it encounters another unforeseen setback, which seems somewhat unlikely. Once Eli Lilly launches orforglipron, it will likely set a price tag that somewhat rivals Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the original formulation of Wegovy will continue having trouble keeping pace with Zepbound. In other words, investors shouldn’t bet on Novo Nordisk catching up to Eli Lilly this year.<\/p>\n Is the stock a buy?<\/p>\n Even if that’s the case, there is a compelling case to be made for Novo Nordisk. Beyond oral Wegovy, it has earned other label expansions in recent months and is racing toward the approval of its next-gen anti-obesity medicine, CagriSema. The Denmark-based pharmaceutical giant<\/a> also has other important mid- and late-stage candidates that are expected to make progress in the coming years.<\/p>\n In my view, Novo Nordisk remains a buy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The gap may be too hard to close in the next 12 months. Novo Nordisk (NVO 0.47%) was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-243317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Novo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768354871_372_.png\"\/)
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