Novo Nordisk said more than 3 million prescriptions have been filled for its oral weight loss drug Wegovy since its launch in early January. The Danish drugmaker said late Sunday that the oral drug had reached 1 million prescriptions 12 weeks after it became available on U.S. pharmacies and online vendors, and an additional 2 million prescriptions were filled in the following 10 weeks.
More than 80% of new prescriptions for Visiumib oral medication are for patients taking GLP-1 drugs for the first time. The company said this suggests new oral dosage forms are expanding the obesity treatment market rather than replacing existing injectable treatments.
After initially launching the oral Visiumib in the United States, Novo Nordisk last week announced the launch of the drug in the United Arab Emirates and said it was preparing for additional regional launches in the second half of this year.
The drugmaker also recently launched a higher-dose weight-loss injection of Visium, which it says has also shown strong demand during its initial launch.
Wegovy HD is a once-weekly injection containing 7.2 mg of the active ingredient semaglutide. The company has said that this is the most powerful weight-loss effect of any Visiumin injection to date.
Prior to the launch of Wegovy HD, the highest injectable dose available was 2.4 mg of semaglutide