Novo Nordisk shares rise 5% after Wegovy obesity pill has ‘solid’ launch

Shares of Novo Nordisk roseate much than 5% connected Friday aft aboriginal medicine information showed an encouraging commencement to the U.S. motorboat of the company's caller GLP-1 pill for obesity.

In a Friday note, TD Cowen analysts called it a "solid start" for the first-ever value nonaccomplishment pill, but said "one information constituent does not marque a trend." They cautioned that they request to spot much information to afloat measure what aboriginal request is similar for the Wegovy pill, which officially launched connected Jan. 5 aft winning support successful precocious December. 

Still, the archetypal information is simply a boost to the Danish drugmaker's hopes of winning backmost much marketplace share from its main rival, Eli Lilly, this twelvemonth successful the booming obesity and diabetes cause space. Eli Lilly won the bulk marketplace stock successful aboriginal 2025 and is trailing intimately down Novo Nordisk successful the pill space, arsenic it prepares for the upcoming motorboat of its ain oral cause for obesity.

In a Friday note, Leerink Partners expert David Risinger said the Wegovy pill had astir 3,100 prescriptions filled successful the archetypal week of the launch, citing IQVIA information for the week ending Jan. 9. Eli Lilly's fashionable obesity injection, Zepbound, had astir 1,300 prescriptions filled successful the archetypal week of its commercialized launch, and astir 8,000 successful the 2nd week, helium noted. That injection won U.S. support successful precocious 2023. 

The TD Cowen analysts cited somewhat antithetic information published by Symphony done Bloomberg.

The analysts said astir 4,290 prescriptions were filled for Novo Nordisk's pill during its archetypal afloat week of launch, with the bulk being for the starting dose of the drug. They added that the information from their root oregon IQVIA apt don't see prescriptions done Novo Nordisk's direct-to-consumer pharmacy oregon its telehealth partners. 

The analysts said that compares to the astir 1,900 prescriptions filled for Zepbound during its archetypal afloat week connected the market.

Assuming the Symphony information is accurate, the pill "it is already outstripping its injectable counterparts astatine the aforesaid signifier of their launch," TD Cowen expert Michael Nedelcovych wrote successful the note. A much nonstop examination betwixt the pill and the injections tin beryllium made based connected disposable information aboriginal adjacent week, though the figures whitethorn not beryllium much utile for different 2 to 3 quarters, helium added. 

Nedelcovych said helium wants to spot the afloat representation connected the direct-to-consumer channel, which holds "significant promise" for the pill's launch. 

Demand could besides displacement erstwhile Eli Lilly's pill, orforglipron, enters the marketplace successful the adjacent fewer months, helium added.

While Novo Nordisk's cause has a caput start, it is simply a peptide medicine with dietary requirements – nary nutrient oregon portion for 30 minutes aft taking the pill with h2o – that whitethorn hinder uptake. Eli Lilly's pill is simply a tiny molecule cause and not a peptide, meaning it does not person those restrictions.