Novo Nordisk to seek regulatory approval for Wegovy pill in China soon, says CEO

BEIJING - Novo Nordisk plans to seek Chinese regulatory approval for its weight-loss pill "very soon," CEO Mike Doustdar said on Tuesday, as it moves to catch up with rival Eli Lilly in the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market.

Danish drugs giant Novo and U.S.-based Eli Lilly believe weight-loss pills could appeal to patients reluctant to use injections and are racing to expand the use of medicines that have transformed weight-loss treatment and reshaped the global pharmaceutical industry.

Eli Lilly said in March it submitted a marketing application for orforglipron, its once-daily oral non-peptide GLP-1 agonist, to China's drug regulator at the end of 2025.

Novo's Wegovy pill, approved in the U.S. and the UK, contains semaglutide, the same active ingredient as its blockbuster injectable drug of the same name and Ozempic.

In China, sales of GLP-1 medicines through the two major e-commerce platforms of Alibaba and JD.com totalled about 1.4 billion yuan ($207 million) in the first quarter, according to Jefferies.

(Reporting by Andrew Silver; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kate Mayberry)

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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 11:59 PM.