Novo Nordisk’s share rose when the US approved the sale of its diet pills

of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the pill version of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy weight loss drug Monday night as the first so-called GLP-1 drug in the United States.

The price on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange rose rapidly on Tuesday, increasing by more than nine percent after 15:00 Finnish time.

On the US Nasdaq stock exchange, the share rose by nine percent in the same direction.

Novo According to Nordisk, the effect of the oral pill is the same as the 2.4 milligram dose of Wegovy, which was previously only available as an injection.

The company said that it expects to have a pill version on the US market as early as January 2026. In the US, Novo Nordisk thus gained a competitive advantage over its main competitor, Eli Lilly, with the Zepbound slimming drug.

On Tuesday, Eli Lilly’s stock was down by more than one percent.

According to Novo Nordisk, the monthly price of the pill version in the US will be 149 euros.

Customers paying online can also get the medicine directly from the President of the United States Donald Trump’s from their own Trump Rx website. Novo Nordisk reached an agreement with the Trump administration on this sales channel in November.

Novo Nordisk shares have been popular with many small Finnish investors recently. Its price has fallen by almost 50 percent since the beginning of the year, even if Tuesday’s price increase is taken into account.

Towards the end of June 2024, the course was at its peak, crossing the thousand Danish kroner mark. On Tuesday afternoon, the share was traded at prices of around 330 kroner.

Novo Nordisk has three medicines with the active ingredient semaglutide: the drops Wegovy and Ozempic and the oral diabetes medicine Rybelsus. Ozempic has been sold as a diabetes medication since 2017.

Semaglutide mimics the gut hormone GLP-1, which increases insulin secretion when blood sugar is high, increasing satiety and reducing appetite.

Correction 23.12. 11:26 p.m.: Novo Nordisk sells the drug semaglutide under three different brand names. Previously, the article erroneously talked about only two drugs.

Correction 24.12. 22:08: Eli Lilly’s name was previously misspelled as El Lilly.