Denmark’s Novo Nordisk will offer its 1.5 and 4 milligram Wegovy weight loss pills at $149 per month to self-paying patients in the United States from January 5, it said on Monday.
It will from the same date offer the highest doses of the drug pill, of 9 and 25 milligram, at $299 per month, it said on its website.
The price for the 4 milligram dose will rise to $199 per month from April 15, it said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on December 22 approved the pill, giving Novo Nordisk a leg up as it looks to regain lost ground from rival Eli Lilly.
The semaglutide pills contain the same active ingredient as injectable Wegovy and Ozempic, and will be sold under the brand name Wegovy. Novo Nordisk already sells an oral semaglutide for type 2 diabetes, Rybelsus.
The U.S. regulators approval of the the pill version of Wegovy marked the first time a daily oral medication was green-lit to treat obesity.
The change is expected to drive even further adoption of the already widely popular GLP-1 class of drugs and help fight chronic obesity around the world.
“We now have injectable-like efficacy in a once-daily pill,” David Moore, executive vice president of Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk’s U.S. operations, told The Wall Street Journal at the time. “And that’s a change from where we’ve been
Some have avoided weight loss jabs due to the higher cost of injections, which can be priced at upwards of $1,000 per month, as well as issues with insurance and fear of needles. There are hopes the introduction of more affordable pills could open up the drugs to a wider market.
“This is a meaningful step forward in the field,” Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist who runs a weight loss clinic in Cary, North Carolina, told NBC News. “It won’t replace injectables, but it broadens our tool kit in an important way.”
“Pills are familiar, non-intimidating and fit more naturally into most people’s routines,” he added.
