Audio roundup of selected biopharma industry content from Scrip over the business week ended May 8, 2026. This episode was produced with the help of AI text-to-voice and voice emulation tools. This time – Novo winning early oral obesity market; GSK deal bolsters downstream obesity strategy; brighter Pfizer outlook due to Vyndamax settlements; China dominates record novel drug launches; and J&amp;J drops two lymphoma CAR-Ts. Story links: https://insights.citeline.com/scrip/podcasts/scrips-five-must-know-things/quick-listen-scrips-five-must-know-things-IEFP6L4BNNCFTNMAXVIX54E6CQ/

Scrip's Five Must-Know Things - May 11, 2026 

Citeline Podcasts

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Citeline Podcasts

## Transcript

Hello and welcome to the podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things, this time for the Business Week ended May 8, 2026. This is Ian Haydock. This episode was produced with the help of AI-powered text to voice and voice emulation tools. This time, Novo winning early oral obesity market, GSK deal bolsters downstream obesity strategy, brighter Pfizer outlook due

to Vindamac settlements. China dominates record novel drug launches and J&J drops two lymphoma CARTs. Novo Nordisk's Wegevy pill has achieved the best ever obesity product launch and is so far beating Eli Lilly's Foundio in their first few weeks of US market competition, but the direct-to-consumer market is rewriting the prices and profit model for the company, Andrew

McConaughey writes. Oral Wegevy, which is semaglutide, was launched in the US on January 5th and has achieved prescriptions of around 1.3 million in the first quarter. Lilly's Foundio reached the market close behind on April 9th, but recent initial figures showed it getting off to a less impressive start than Novo's product. That confirms the Wegevy pill as the strongest ever

GLP one-volume launch in the US and is a welcome victory for Novo, which has been on a losing streak against its rival for some time. Most notably, Lilly's Zepbound overtook Novo's injectable Wegevy to become market leader last year. Analysts have attributed the Wegevy pill success to Novo sharpening its commercial execution, including striking deals with multiple telehealth partners

and the big three US pharmacy benefit managers to achieve broad access at launch. But these deals include a sharp cut in prices, with a large discount for people buying oral Wegevy through direct-to-consumer channels as opposed to the injectable version through health insurance. The Wegevy pill is available via the Novocare pharmacy from $149 per month, just a tenth of last year's price of the injectable version.

That is significant, as Novo confirmed that 50% of oral Wegevy prescriptions are through these lower-cost consumer self-pay channels. CEO Mike Dustar told a May 5th media call that needle-free administration was persuading doctors and patients to try obesity treatment for the first time. In terms of patients, we see close to 80% of Wegevy pill users are GLP-1 treatment-naive patients.

We also see patients coming to Wegevy pill from competitor products, and we see limited cannibalisations from our own injectable Wegevy, he said. Overall, Q1 sales for the Wegevy pill reached around $354 million, though this was inflated by pre-launch pipeline fill with wholesalers and telehealth partners. Novo has meanwhile looked to boost its overall corporate profit margin

by cutting back heavily on headcount, with employee numbers reduced by 10,000 over the last 12 months. Analysts credited the company for a solid first-quarter performance, but generally saw no clear signs of its regaining overall market leadershi...

Scrip's Five Must-Know Things - May 11, 2026

Transcript

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Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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Scrip's Five Must-Know Things - May 11, 2026

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.