A new and higher dose of obesity drug Wegovy has joined Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide portfolio, giving patients and doctors more options for treatment.
This comes even as semaglutide — the active ingredient in weightloss drug Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic — begins to face generic competitors in countries including India. The Danish healthcare company has plans to bring the higher dose to India, company executives said.
“There’s no one size that fits all obesity patients. They come in many shapes and forms and have each of their challenges…The high dose Wegovy (7.2 mg) offering that we are launching across Europe soon and the United Kingdom … is important for patients because some will need a bigger weight loss than what we have seen so far,” Emil Kongshøj Larsen, Novo Nordisk’s Executive Vice President (International Operations) told businessline. He was speaking from Istanbul (Turkiye), where Novo Nordisk had presented its new analysis at the recent European Congress on Obesity, indicating that a higher dose of Wegovy was effective in helping people lose significant amount of weight.
Citing data presented at the Congress, Larsen said, “early responders will actually get up to 28 percent weight loss with the high dose Wegovy… But some patients prefer all offerings and formats … And that’s why, we’re also excited to launch new data on the Wegovy pill, also showing that early responders can go as high as having a 22 percent weight loss.” The average weight loss seen in trials is 17 percent, the highest of any oral medicine out there for obesity, he said.
Another insight from the data pointed to concerns on muscle mass or lean body mass, in patients who have overall weight loss, he said. Data from their Step-Up clinical trial showed that a vast majority of the weight loss from a high dose of Wegovy was from pure fat. This indicated that patients retained their strength and mobility as they lose weight, he explained.
“We’re giving more and more good reasons to actually start the weight loss journey if you are a patient with overweight or obesity, and particularly if you have comorbidities,” Larsen said.
India time-line
On a plan for India, Larsen said, “launching our high doses is a priority across all geographies.” Industry data pegs semaglutide annual sales, across pill and injectable formats, at about $33 billion.
Vikrant Shrotriya, Novo Nordisk (India) Managing Director, said, they were going to approach the Indian drug regulator seeking approvals for the 7.2 mg dosage. While they are yet to submit applications, he said, there was much opportunity still to be tapped in the dose strengths already available in India. “Patients will have a very good experience… for the first year with the doses now available in India. And then some patients will need to over time titrate to a higher dose… the current formats (of) Wegovy and the strengths will go a very long way in India,” he said.
Wegovy’s journey in India has been punctuated with price-cuts and partnerships, as it faces domestic drugmakers launching their generic versions of this drug at 50 – 80 percent of the innovators original price.
“The story we’ve seen so far in India, I think, is very encouraging because … GLP-1 (the class semaglutide belongs to) is being talked about by more companies because the benefits are so unique… treatment volumes are going up many fold in just a matter of a month or two,” said Larsen. “We actually have the opportunity to win in this very, very competitive market as the originator company when it comes to Wegovy and Ozempic and that our brands are doing better than ever. So it is an expanding market because many more patients get to benefit from semaglutide.”
Safety profile
Pointing to data on cardiovascular benefits from semaglutide, Larsen said, “at this conference, there’s also been some interesting data presented on women… before menopause, women actually have a lower cardiovascular risk because of estrogen … But then after menopause, women actually have a higher risk of cardiovascular events compared to men. And here, semaglutide is unique, whether it’s oral or injectable in having proven cardiovascular risk reduction.”
On the risk of a heart attack, when the medicine stops, he said, “most medicines only work when you take them. If it’s statins for cardiovascular risk reduction or insulin …. obesity is a chronic relapsing disease. You might find one or two unique patients who don’t regain weight if they stop on a treatment, but most will. ..this is a treatment that you need to maintain over the long haul in most instances. But again, patients are not all the same.”