What’s been Novo Nordisk's secret weapon to turn the tables on Eli Lilly and win the current market battle over their oral GLP-1 obesity drugs? Name recognition.
That's according to Jim Hickey, an analyst with Spherix Global Insights, who has studied the competition by surveying 50 primary care physicians (PCPs) and 50 endocrinologists in the United States, as well as writing monthly reports on the uptake of the drugs, both of which debuted on the market earlier this year.
“It’s interesting to see how strongly Novo Nordisk has come out of the gate,” Hickey said in an interview with Fierce. “It’s a very strong launch from what we can see. That lines up with the data Novo Nordisk has shared. I think a big difference between the two really comes down to familiarity. We see the familiarity ratings for Wegovy pill as being much stronger than what we can see for Foundayo.”
Novo’s pill, which it launched in January, has the advantage of sharing its name with the company’s injected weight-loss drug Wegovy, and both formats are derived from the same GLP-1 compound semaglutide.
Lilly’s Foundayo (orforglipron), which launched in April, is an entirely new molecule, differing from the company’s injected GLP-1/GIP blockbuster tirzepatide. In the U.S., the dual agonist is known as Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for Type 2 diabetes. Foundayo, on the other hand, is a single-target GLP-1 agonist like Novo's Wegovy pill.
While many analysts have chalked up Novo’s early success to its first-to-market advantage, Hickey believes—based on feedback from doctors—that familiarity is more at play.
There is a “comfort and knowledge,” with semaglutide that doesn’t exist with orforglipron, Hickey said.
In the most recent weekly reporting period, oral Wegovy had attracted 159,000 prescriptions compared to 19,879 for Foundayo, according to IQVIA data. It was the 22nd week on the market for Wegovy compared to the ninth week for Foundayo.
Analysis of data using IQVIA prescription trends may be imperfect however, failing to capture a significant number of telehealth referrals for the increasingly popular obesity pills, analysts have cautioned.
Framed another way, Novo reported earlier this month that since the Wegovy pill's launch on Jan. 5, the tablet has garnered more than 3 million total prescriptions. The bulk of those scripts are from patients new to the GLP-1 class, Novo said at the time.
Meanwhile, another observation made by Spherix on the competition is that PCPs are more likely than endocrinologists to prescribe oral Wegovy. The research and intelligence firm's data also indicate that endocrinologists are more likely to have seen representatives from both companies than PCPs.
As he surveys doctors going forward, Hickey is anxious to get feedback on efficacy comparisons between the pills and how patients are viewing the restrictions on Wegovy. Novo's pill must be taken on an empty stomach, while Lilly has tried to accentuate the lack of food or water restrictions for Foundayo. Hickey also said more data will be coming in on discontinuations and how many patients are switching off injectables, rather than starting a GLP-1 for the first time via an oral.