Novo Nordisk to seek China approval for oral Wegovy soon

Novo Nordisk is moving to take oral Wegovy into China, a market that could shape the next phase of the global obesity-drug race. Mike Doustdar said in Beijing that the company would seek regulatory approval “very soon,” a step aimed at helping Novo catch up with Eli Lilly in China’s fast-growing obesity market and in a country that is central to the industry’s fight for scale, access and pricing power.

Doustdar made the comments during his first visit to China since becoming chief executive in August, and said Novo would submit the oral version of Wegovy “within a few months.” The push matters because the pill could reach patients who do not want injections, expanding the addressable market beyond the people already using injectable GLP-1 medicines. Novo has already said the oral Wegovy franchise has topped 3 million prescriptions worldwide, with one prescription filled roughly every five seconds, a sign that the pill format is moving from a pipeline story into a commercial one.

China is the prize and the pressure point. Semaglutide’s patent in China expired in March, but Novo still has regulatory data protection until early next year, giving the company a narrow window to secure approval and build a stronger position before competition intensifies further. China’s Supreme Court also backed the validity of Novo’s semaglutide patent in March, underscoring that the intellectual-property picture is more layered than a single expiration date suggests. For Novo, the legal and regulatory mix matters as much as the drug itself, because it will help determine whether the company can defend pricing and preserve market share as the oral category opens up.

Eli Lilly has already moved first in the oral race. Its orforglipron filing was submitted to Chinese regulators at the end of 2025 and accepted in January 2026, giving it an early lead in a market that could eventually become one of the world’s biggest for obesity treatment. Lilly has also pledged $3 billion over 10 years to expand manufacturing and supply-chain capacity in China for oral solid dosage forms, a sign that it sees the country not just as a sales opportunity but as a strategic production base.

Novo’s China filing is therefore about more than one pill. It is a bid to extend the reach of GLP-1 therapy, widen access for patients who have not yet been treated and defend a franchise that has become one of the most closely watched in global pharmaceuticals. In China, the competition is no longer only about who has the best medicine. It is about who can scale fastest, price most effectively and own the next generation of obesity care.