Feb 25, 2021 9:41am
Novo Nordisk s oral Ozempic follow-up, Rybelsus, managed to pull $303 million in 2020 sales. (Novo Nordisk)
Novo Nordisk didn’t let the pandemic scupper the launch of its oral diabetes drug Rybelsus last year. Now, with strong sales on the docket, it’s pledging millions to expand future capacity for the blockbuster-in-waiting.
Novo Nordisk plans to spend 500 million Danish kroner ($82 million) to expand its production facility in Måløv, Denmark. The plant currently turns out Rybelsus, Novo’s oral semaglutide follow-up to its injectable Type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic.
The project, which is expected to wrap in 2022, will lock up future tablet production capacity for Rybelsus. Novo didn’t say what its final capacity would be when the expansion is complete.
Feb 11, 2021 11:08am
Novo Nordisk estimates that only 10% of 650 million people with obesity currently seek medical treatment, leaving the market wide open for its drug semaglutide. (Creative Commons CC0)
Novo Nordisk has taken one step forward in its ambition to move its Type 2 diabetes drug semaglutide into the giant and largely untapped obesity market. And despite the failure of past obesity drugs not to mention lackluster sales of Novo’s own weight loss product Saxenda the company’s executives now have even more reason to be optimistic.
Data from a phase 3 trial released Wednesday night showed that one-third of patients taking semaglutide, a GLP-1 agonist, lost more than 20% of their body weight during the 68-week trial. The average participant lost more than 33 pounds, and many saw improvements in risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, according to University College London, one of the principle trial sites. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medi