Competition in US oral weight-loss drugs intensifies! Eli Lilly (LLY.US) Foundayo captures 30% of new patients, narrowing Novo Nordisk's (NVO.US) first-mover advantage

According to Jinse Finance APP, Eli Lilly (LLY.US) announced on Monday that its oral weight loss drug Foundayo has captured over 30% of the market share among new patients in the US oral obesity treatment market, narrowing the early lead established by Danish competitor Novo Nordisk (NVO.US) with its oral Wegovy tablets.

It is understood that Eli Lilly's oral weight loss drug Foundayo was launched in early April, about three months later than Novo Nordisk’s competing product, oral Wegovy.

Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar stated in August that despite competition from Eli Lilly’s oral drug Foundayo, the company estimates that the oral Wegovy tablets have claimed around 90% of the US oral weight loss market share.

Investors are closely monitoring the demand for oral weight loss drugs, which are expected to expand the weight loss market by attracting patients unwilling to use injectables and alleviate some supply challenges associated with injection therapies.

Novo Nordisk said in January that it expects oral drugs to account for more than one-third of GLP-1 weight loss treatments by 2030. Analysts predict that by that year, the annual size of the overall US obesity treatment market alone will exceed 100 billion dollars.

Eli Lilly's Executive Vice President Ilya Yuffa stated at the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Conference in New York that Eli Lilly’s injectable GLP-1 weight loss drug Zepbound has also proved popular among patients in the US government Medicare weight loss drug pilot program launched in July.

Yuffa noted that the program allows eligible beneficiaries to obtain weight loss drugs at a co-pay of 50 dollars per month, and among participating patients, 60% to 70% were receiving such treatment for the first time. Medicare covers around 66 million people aged 65 and over or those with disabilities.

Outside the US, Eli Lilly is also facing new competition in India and Canada, where generic versions of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight loss and diabetes drugs—Wegovy and Ozempic—are being sold at prices as much as 70% lower than the originals.

However, Yuffa stated that the introduction of these generics has simply made the market larger.

He added: “When the market expands significantly through generics, market share will fall. But in those markets, Mounjaro’s overall sales—absolute sales—continue to grow.” Mounjaro is the brand name for Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide used in the fields of obesity and diabetes outside of the US.