Novo Nordisk’s Martin Holst Lange previews obesity pill
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We are approaching to have the first needle -free weight loss medication.
THANKS THANKS Novo NordiskWhich The US is waiting for the approval of the USA For daily pill for chronic weight management by the end of this year. The company is waiting to start in the beginning of 2026.
Drug, Danish drug producer’s popular weight loss injection Wegovy and Ozempik for diabetes.
Several drug producers, including Novo Nordisk’s head rival Hand LillyIt is competing to develop obesity pills that can help alleviate supply deficiencies and problems that reach injections in the market. The production of pills is easier than injections and some health professionals hope that they can be cheaper.
It can be too early to say which pill will win the biggest share of the market. But something is clear: it will be the beginning of Novo Nordisk’s medicine.
Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Scientific of Novo Nordisk Martin Holst Lange, He sat with CNBC to prevent the company’s pill.
On the advantages of the pill:
Lange introduced the “unique” weight loss, security and tolerability of the pill.
The pill helped patients to lose 16.6% of their weight in 64 weeks. consequences The late stage attempt presented at a medical conference in 2024. When the company analyzed all patients, regardless of whether they stopped the drug, weight loss was 13.6%.
Weight loss seems to be compatible with the injectable version of Semaglididine (Wegovy) and is slightly higher than an experimental pill from Eli Lilly in a separate stage attempt.
“I think the data is talking a little for themselves, Lan Lange said.
Lange then expects some of the company’s pills to be less effective than injectable drugs, but for Novo Nordisk, “the situation is not the case.”
In addition, compared to rival drugs, he pointed out the “significant lower” rates of patients who stopped treatment due to side effects. However, Lange said to make comparisons with a “salt grain” because Novo Nordisk pills the pill directly against other drugs.
Approximately 6.9% of the patients were stopped by oral semagludidine due to side effects of gastrointestinal side effects compared to approximately 5.9% of placebo areas.
Meanwhile, 10.3% of patients with the highest dose of Eli Lilly’s pill stopped treatment due to side effects compared to about 2.6% of people in a placebo group.
Lange also said that Novo Nordisk’s pill may have a cardiovascular health benefit. Because Semagluid – especially wegovy – is the only injection in the market with a built -in and approved cardiovascular benefit.
Novo Nordisk said wegovy last week Reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or death Zepbound in the comparison of rival drugs in patients with obesity and cardiovascular diseases but non -diabetics against Eli Lilly’s weight loss injection.
At a separate stage called “Soul”, Novo Nordisk’s oral Semaglidid reduced the risk of death, heart attack and stroke by 14% in patients with or without chronic renal disease or without diabetes and heart disease.
In the dietary requirements of the pill:
Novo Nordisk’s pill is a peptide drug, like competitors Eli Lilly’s treatment is small molecular drugs.
This means that patients should take the oral semagluid of Novo Nordisk on an empty stomach without plain water from four ounces in the morning. It is instructed to wait 30 minutes before eating, drinking or taking other oral drugs. Some analysts told CNBC that these dietary requirements could be an obstacle for certain patients.
However, Lange described it as a “theoretical concern” and pointed out the evidence that this is not a real limitation. ” For example, patients were treated with pills for up to five years in placebo -controlled spirit trial, and said, “We did not see it as a limitation even in this environment.”
“Patients apparently take this medicine without limiting their lives.” He said. “I think this is a matter, you get up in the morning, you take the tablet, then you take a shower, you go to breakfast, and then very fast, half an hour.”
How to fit the pills into the obesity market:
Lange said injections did not look like a “big obstacle” He accepted that there were some patients who received obesity treatments but did not like needles or have other reasons not to ask for a drug that can be injected.
Novo Nordisk wants to reach these people.
“If there are a large group of people who prefer an injectable oral, we want to deliver it,” he said. “We prefer to deliver this with the same activity and security profile.”
In addition, he said that he could foresee patients who started in an injectable way to protect their results and have passed into another form of treatment: “You can go into an oral, go to a lower dose, something less. [gastrointestinal side effects]. “
Lange said that the ability to transition to different treatments should be proved in a trial in the third stage, but “based on what we’ve ever seen, this option in this portfolio”.
He emphasized other oral and injectable drugs, including Novo Nordisk’s Amycretin. This treatment targets a pancreas hormone called the wegovy imitations known as GLP-1, as well as a pancreas called amyline that affects hunger. Lange, Amycretin’la late stage trials will begin next year, he said.
To meet the demand with supply:
For the last few years, the injections of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have fell into a shortage of supply due to rapidly rising demand. These treatments are no longer inadequate and the Wall Street and Health and Medicine community hopes that pills will not face the same problem.
Since Novo Nordisk wants to continue treatment of patients, Lange said that it is a “key for us to produce enough medicine to meet the demand. He said that the company is sure that the production of treatment can scale the production.
Lange drew attention to the increasing production capacity investments of the company in the last few years. This includes a new production facility in North Carolina and an agreement to purchase three catalant production sites from Novo Nordisk’s mother’s mother’s parent company Novo Holdings.
Lange said that these investments will help in injectable supply, but “definitely goes to oral active ingredients produced in the US”
Feel free to send any clues, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika. Annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.
Openai is doubled About Health Services Novelty.
Inside A writing On Tuesday, LinkedIn, Openai’s main product manager Kevin Weil announced that it has created a new initiative called Openai Science “within the company. The artificial intelligence company will rent a small academician team to create a “AI -backed platform that accelerates scientific discovery”.
“When we are paired with a small researcher team, AI models are ready to accelerate basic science and we want to accelerate research all over the world.”
Openai for Science will not only work on health services, but Weil shared a few examples of how AI has been used to accelerate health -related and biological research in recent months. He talked about Google Deepmind’s Alphafold, who foresees the structure of proteins and Openai’s work with Retro Biosciences.
“Scientific discovery improves everything from the quality of our daily life to national security, global GDP.” He said. “Innovation is the reason why the US leads the world. Very few areas promises to improve their lives as science.”
The new scientific initiative comes after Openai’s GPT-5 as a “best model” for health-related queries. The GPT-5, which was released last month, is Openai’s newest and most advanced large-scale AI model.
Openai CEO said Sam Altman A writing X Health -related questions are one of the largest use categories for Chatgpt Chatbot.
GPT-5 is designed to mark health concerns proactively, ask about questions and create more precise and reliable answers, Openai Blog post. Altman said in his X article that he hopes that GPT-5’s health skills will “offer real service to people.”
“Health services are perhaps the most powerful development of any category,” CNBC’s “Squawk box” last month. He said.
Feel free to send any clues, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at Ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.
