Wegovy weight loss pill launches in the UAE as Novo looks beyond U.S.
Novo Nordisk The Danish drugmaker said on Wednesday that its weight-loss pill Wegovy will launch in the United Arab Emirates, its first launch outside the US market.
Emil Kongshøj Larsen, vice president of International Operations, said Novo’s approach will be driven by patient demand, healthcare worker preparedness and the strength of healthcare and telehealth infrastructure.
“The UAE has demonstrated strong momentum in all these areas, and we look forward to bringing the Wegovy pill to other selected countries in the coming months,” he said.
The country’s regulatory authority, Emirates Pharmaceuticals, has approved the Wegovy pill for weight management and reducing the risk of cardiovascular events in high-risk patients. earlier this week.
Larsen told CNBC last month that Novo is “all in” on launching its Wegovy pill in overseas markets and that it’s a “huge opportunity.”
Novo announced alongside its first-quarter earnings in early May that it would launch the pill, pending approvals, in select markets outside the U.S. in the second half of 2026, without naming specific markets.
BAE’s launch comes as Novo struggles with a declining share of the weight-loss drug market, which analysts predict will exceed $100 billion by 2030. While Novo was the first company to launch so-called GLP-1 drugs for obesity, Lilly’s Mounjaro overtook Novo’s Ozempic as the best-selling GLP-1 in the second quarter of 2025.
Larsen told CNBC in May that the pill format has appealed to many patients in the U.S. and he expects it to be replicated in the rest of the world, also underscoring the “superior effectiveness” of the Wegovy pill.
Studies have suggested that the pill leads to more significant weight loss and has certain cardiovascular benefits than Foundayo, but so far no clinical trials have been able to directly compare the two drugs.
Important US market
The US still accounts for more than half of both Novo’s and its chief rival’s sales. Eli LillyIt recently launched its own weight loss pill, Foundayo.
The Wegovy pill accounted for only a small portion of Novo’s total sales in the first quarter since its launch: 3%, or 2.3 billion Danish kroner ($355 million).
In early May, Novo said total prescriptions for the pill had surpassed 2 million, with sales greatly exceeding expectations despite its low price. Foundayo’s uptake, on the other hand, has been slower since its launch in early April; Lilly CEO David Ricks said that since Foundayo is a completely new drug and brand, it will take time to become available in the market.
The success of the Wegovy pill in the U.S. has led investors to be cautiously optimistic that Novo can regain some of the market it lost to Lilly.
Novo shares are still down about 15% year-to-date, with double-digit declines following mostly dismal guidance and a trial showing its next-generation weight-loss drug CagriSema failed to match the effectiveness of Lilly’s Zepbound.
