Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News Now.
Speaker 2: For our top corporate story of the morning, Nova Noorda
Speaker 2: shares rising and pre market trading. This is the drug
Speaker 2: maker wins approval to sell a pill version of its
Speaker 2: blockbuster obesity drug. We Govie joining us now with a
Speaker 2: special guest, Katie Greifeld.
Speaker 3: Hey Katie, Hey Anriy, Thank you very much joining me now.
Speaker 3: I'm pleased to say is the CVO of Novo Nordis.
Speaker 3: His name is Mike Dostar. Mike, great to have you
Speaker 3: with us. Just to set the scene here when it
Speaker 3: comes to the US market, you've been losing share to
Speaker 3: your rival Eli Lily for a couple of years now,
Speaker 3: but with this approval you have an important first mover
Speaker 3: advantage when it comes to oral GLP ones. Given that
Speaker 3: you expect to start selling the pill version of Wagov
Speaker 3: in January, whereas Eli Lily isn't due on the market
Speaker 3: until March, how do you plan to make the most
Speaker 3: of this head start.
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for having me, Katie. As they said,
Speaker 1: Christmas comes early, so I'm super excited of course to
Speaker 1: be here announcing the big OV pill. As you say,
Speaker 1: this is really going to be super exciting for the
Speaker 1: millions of patients that have been waiting to get their
Speaker 1: hands on a GLP one pill. And for the first time,
Speaker 1: we are having a pill that has an efficacy of
Speaker 1: some seventeen percent if you take the pill regularly, and
Speaker 1: one in three people are going to actually reduce up
Speaker 1: to twenty percent weight loss. I think that data speaks
Speaker 1: for itself, and we are super excited of course to
Speaker 1: be the first to the market, and we're going to
Speaker 1: go all in trying to make this a huge success.
Speaker 3: Well moving forward, I mean beyond just these first few
Speaker 3: months after Eli Lilly does have their pill on the market,
Speaker 3: how do you plan to compete? What is your strategy there?
Speaker 3: Given my understanding is that there's likely going to be
Speaker 3: no restrictions when it comes to food, when it comes
Speaker 3: to drinks around Lily's version.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, as I mentioned, there are no other phase
Speaker 1: three trials of GP one that has shown this level efficacy.
Speaker 1: This means that for the first time ever, people do
Speaker 1: not have compromise between either taking an efficacious injection or
Speaker 1: a convenient pill. For the first time ever, you have
Speaker 1: the same efficacy of seventeen percent in injection or at
Speaker 1: pill you can take it on a daily basis as
Speaker 1: a pill or a weekly injection, and that I think
Speaker 1: is the key selling point with WeGo v Pill. We
Speaker 1: also have more than ten years of of course experience
Speaker 1: with regards to safety data and what have you. That's
Speaker 1: why it's called the vigov pill, which means that this
Speaker 1: pill is not only going to reduce your weight, it
Speaker 1: also has protection for your cardiovascular systems. So this is
Speaker 1: a phenomenal pill, second to none, I would say, and
Speaker 1: we are very ready to compete with it.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about how you're going to sell it through.
Speaker 3: What channels will you sell this way go v Pill
Speaker 3: and will all of those channels be available at launch?
Speaker 1: The quick answer is yes, we're going all in. We're
Speaker 1: of course going to sell this through our own websites,
Speaker 1: Novercare Pharmacy, as well as all of our partners be
Speaker 1: it row, Live, MD, Costco, weight Watchers, everyone that you
Speaker 1: can imagine is going to start launching this at the
Speaker 1: same time on the day of the launch. Trump Our
Speaker 1: X of course will be coming up soon as well
Speaker 1: as well as, of course the traditional channels that usually
Speaker 1: medicine is procrued in US.
Speaker 3: Well to that point that you know it's going to
Speaker 3: be widely available. Let's talk about supply. I know that
Speaker 3: you've already started production. How confident are you that you're
Speaker 3: going to be able to meet all of that demand
Speaker 3: at launch, given, of course, the supply challenges that you've
Speaker 3: been through in the past.
Speaker 1: Let me take you back. You know, ten years ago,
Speaker 1: when we started the journey of putting a peptide into
Speaker 1: a pill, no one thought scientifically that is possible. You
Speaker 1: have to remind your audience that pills are usually chemical entities,
Speaker 1: small molecules, and not proteins and peptides, and often they
Speaker 1: have lower efficacy because of that. When we decided to
Speaker 1: actually go this route, everyone thought scientifically, this is impossible.
Speaker 1: Then after that, when we prove them wrong, people thought
Speaker 1: that we cannot scale that because this is quite difficult
Speaker 1: to do again because it's large molecule inside a pill. Again,
Speaker 1: we have shown confidence that we are able to scale
Speaker 1: this more than enough for every single person who would
Speaker 1: want to take the pill, and we're ready for that.
Speaker 1: And then of course, lastly, people are writing us off
Speaker 1: that you know, this would not be possible at an
Speaker 1: affordable price. And I'm also very happy to say once again,
Speaker 1: we are proving all of these skeptics wrong. So I'm
Speaker 1: super excited that we have something that is borderline miracle
Speaker 1: in my own humble opinion, a peptide in a pill
Speaker 1: with a high efficacy, produce at scale, and we're going
Speaker 1: to actually sell it through all channels at relatively affordable price.
Speaker 3: I'm curious how you see this market evolving. Whether you
Speaker 3: think that, you know, having this pill version available will
Speaker 3: expand the total addressable market, the total number of patients
Speaker 3: that you can reach, or whether or not it might
Speaker 3: cannibalize the injectibles that you're already serving.
Speaker 1: You know, in my own family and circle of friends,
Speaker 1: there are a number of people that have been very
Speaker 1: attracted in taking a gop one product and reducing weight.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately that have not you know, taken that journey because
Speaker 1: they've been either afraid of injections or there's the taboo
Speaker 1: of injection. I think a lot of these people today
Speaker 1: will be able to find big ov pill incredibly interesting
Speaker 1: as a weight again to come in get the same
Speaker 1: efficacy as your injection, but in a form factor of
Speaker 1: a pill. So in short, I think the market will
Speaker 1: expand quite a bit actually for many of these people
Speaker 1: that have just been waiting and seeing the injectable versions
Speaker 1: of these gop one products taking taking the world by storm.
Speaker 3: And of course we have to talk about pricing and
Speaker 3: how that plays into the political picture. Many drug makers,
Speaker 3: yourself included, have made pricing deals with the Trump administration.
Speaker 3: And given that those deals have already been made, what
Speaker 3: additional political hurdles do you see, if any, in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty six.
Speaker 1: Well, again, the whole, the whole negotiation with the Trump's
Speaker 1: administration has been around providing access at an affordable price.
Speaker 1: And we have announced that we will start the starting
Speaker 1: those of the big O V pill at one nine,
Speaker 1: which I think is a very you know, affordable price
Speaker 1: for many Americans to to to get interested at. And
Speaker 1: and and I will say that as we go forward,
Speaker 1: of course, we will very much like to continue expanding
Speaker 1: the market, and we will make sure that the price
Speaker 1: levels are in a way that that that that that
Speaker 1: that will make us do that.
Speaker 3: And Mike, before I let you go, I have to
Speaker 3: ask you about m and A. Of course, you had
Speaker 3: that eye profile bidding war with Pizer over met Sarah.
Speaker 3: Pfizer ultimately came out on top. But with that in
Speaker 3: the background, Are you still looking to pursue deals here,
Speaker 3: deals here to help fill out your pipeline so to speak.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we have made it very clear that we would
Speaker 1: like to sustain our leadership in diabetes and obesity and
Speaker 1: go very deep. We have a fantastic pipeline in both
Speaker 1: of those therapy areas. But the world is very large.
Speaker 1: We are dealing with some close to two billion people
Speaker 1: that are suffering from diabetes, obesity and overweight. And when
Speaker 1: you're having an ambition to actually capture as many patients
Speaker 1: as possible from this very large pool, then you will
Speaker 1: continue looking not just in your own research shop, but
Speaker 1: everywhere else to see how complimentary wise you could actually
Speaker 1: have the best pipeline available and the best offering amongst
Speaker 1: all your competitors.
Speaker 3: Well, Mike, I know it is a big day for
Speaker 3: I really appreciate you taking the time for Bloomberg Television.
Speaker 3: Happy holidays when you get there. That is Mike Dostar.
Speaker 3: He is the CEO of Novo Nordisk