Korean drugmakers are stepping up development of oral obesity treatments after Europe approved Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill.
Ildong Pharmaceutical last year released Phase 1 clinical trial results for its oral glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) obesity drug candidate, ID110521156. Patients in the highest-dose 200-milligram group recorded an average weight loss of 9.9 percent over four weeks, the company said. It aims to begin Phase 2 clinical trials next year.
Hanmi Pharmaceutical is preparing to launch its injectable obesity treatment efpeglenatide — a long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist — in the second half of this year. It is also expanding its pipeline to include the development of candidate materials for oral products and a treatment designed to reduce muscle loss.
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Celltrion is also developing both injectable and oral obesity drugs.
Biotech startup ProGen said its oral dual GLP-1 and GLP-2 agonist demonstrated long-lasting efficacy comparable to injectable drugs in a Phase 1a clinical trial.
D&D Pharmatech licensed its oral GLP-1 candidate DD02S, developed using its proprietary Oralink platform, to U.S.-based Metsera.
Driving Korean pharmaceutical companies’ haste is the global push toward approval of oral Wegovy.
Novo Nordisk said Wednesday that the European Commission granted final marketing approval for the oral form of Wegovy, a GLP-1 semaglutide pill taken to induce weight loss.
The decision came about two months after the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommended approval in May.
The Wegovy pill has now been approved in the European Union, following approvals in the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Eli Lilly’s oral obesity drug orforglipron, marketed under the brand name Foundayo, remains under review by the European Medicines Agency. It allows Novo Nordisk to gain an early lead in the European weight loss pill market after doing so in the United States.
Clinical trials showed that the Wegovy pill produced an average weight loss of about 17 percent, with roughly one-third of participants losing more than 20 percent of their body weight.
“For many people, a pill may be a simpler and more acceptable way to start and continue treatment,” Mike Doustdar, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk, said.
Competition in the U.S. oral obesity drug market is already intensifying. Novo Nordisk received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for oral Wegovy in December last year and began selling the drug in January. Cumulative prescriptions of the Wegovy pill had surpassed 3 million as of early June.
Its rival Eli Lilly entered the race in April with the launch of Foundayo.
The biotech industry expects that the European approval would accelerate global competition in oral obesity drugs and encourage more latecomers to enter the market.
“2026 is set to be the ‘year of the orals’, marking a major inflection point in obesity medication accessibility and patient preference,” market research firm Iqminance, oral formulations are emerging as a game-changer for adherence and ease of use.”
