{"id":487136,"date":"2026-06-20T14:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/487136\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T14:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:34:20","slug":"novo-nordisk-moves-to-launch-wegovy-tablet-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/487136\/","title":{"rendered":"Novo Nordisk moves to launch Wegovy tablet in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"\"Novo Nordisk plans to seek approval in China for an oral Wegovy weight-loss pill as competition with Eli Lilly intensifies. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n

A race over obesity treatments is heating up in China, as global pharmaceutical giants compete to dominate the fast-growing market for weight-loss drugs.<\/p>\n

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk says it will soon apply for Chinese approval of an oral version of its blockbuster Wegovy, shifting from injections to pills in a bid to reach more patients, Asia One reports.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be submitting oral Wegovy\u2026for regulatory approval very soon\u2026I would say a few months,\u201d said Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar during a visit to Beijing.<\/p>\n

The move comes as competition intensifies with US rival Eli Lilly, which is also developing a once-daily oral weight-loss drug and has already filed for regulatory approval in China.<\/p>\n

Both companies are targeting the booming demand for GLP-1 medicines, a class of drugs that has transformed obesity treatment worldwide.<\/p>\n

Novo Nordisk believes its manufacturing scale could give it an advantage in the crowded market.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne barrier to entry for the (weight-loss) tablet will also be the scaling of this, in the way that we\u2019re able to do. And I would think not many of our competitors will be able to that level, have the capabilities,\u201d Mike Doustdar said.<\/p>\n

The race is further complicated by growing competition from local Chinese drugmakers and the approaching end of patent protection for key ingredients, opening the door to generics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novo Nordisk plans to seek approval in China for an oral Wegovy weight-loss pill as competition with Eli…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[16520,7013,134,524,244378,111,139,14332,244379,69,18953],"class_list":["post-487136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-eli-lilly","tag-glp-1","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-mike-doustdar","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-novo-nordisk","tag-novo-nordisk-ceo-mike-doustdar","tag-nz","tag-wegovy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}