By Andrew Silver
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk (NYSE:)’s hugely popular weight-loss drug Wegovy has been approved in China, it said on Tuesday, the world’s second-largest economy and the country estimated to have the highest number of overweight or obese people.
Novo said in March it would initially target Chinese patients willing to pay out-of-pocket for the weekly injectable drug.
The number of overweight adults in China is projected to reach 540 million by 2030, a rise of 2.8 times from 2000 levels, while numbers who are obese are seen jumping 7.5 times to 150 million, a 2020 Chinese public health study showed.
The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on when sales will begin, how the drug will be priced, and how much it intends to ship to China.
By 0841 GMT on Tuesday its shares were up 1.7% at record highs, valuing the company at nearly $490 billion.
Novo may have a much shorter time in the Chinese market to make the most of its early-mover advantage in weight-loss drugs.
Its patent on semaglutide, the key ingredient in Wegovy and its diabetes drug Ozempic, is set to expire in less than two years in China compared to in 2031 in Europe and Japan and in 2032 in the U.S, and local drugmakers are racing to develop generic versions.
Novo is also in the midst of a legal fight in China over the patent, an adverse ruling in which could make it lose its semaglutide exclusivity even sooner. That would make China the first major market where it is stripped of patent protection for the drugs.
The group faces competition from rival Eli Lilly (NYSE:), whose diabetes drug tirzepatide received approval from China in May. Some analysts expect Zepound, the U.S. firm’s weight-loss drug with the same active ingredient, will be approved in China this year or in the first half of 2025.
China would become the 12th market globally and second country in Asia after Japan in which Wegovy is available.
Booming demand for the treatment has propelled Novo’s shares to record highs and the company last year overtook LVMH to become Europe’s most valuable listed company.
But its success has left Novo facing shortages and forced to limit the number of patients taking the once-weekly injection.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are racing to increase production in a weight-loss market estimated to reach at least $100 billion globally by the decade’s end. Both companies’ obesity treatments belong to a class of drugs originally developed for diabetes known as GLP-1 agonists.
Novo announced on Monday a $4.1 billion investment to build a U.S. facility to fill injection pens for Wegovy and Ozempic.
Ozempic won approval from China in 2021 and Novo saw sales of the drug in the greater China region double to 4.8 billion Danish crowns ($698 million) last year.
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