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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: So we spoke in December after you were granted US

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Speaker 2: approval to launch your OBC pill this month in January,

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Speaker 2: the first drugmaker to do so. I know it's early,

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Speaker 2: but what has uptake looked like so far?

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Speaker 1: It's been really exciting to launch, and I think when

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Speaker 1: you go around this congress and hear the excitement externally

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Speaker 1: we are of course objective, but externally everyone being excited

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Speaker 1: about it gives you a good feeling. The uptake has

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Speaker 1: been good, but it's really early days for me to

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Speaker 1: go into the details of it, but it really speaks

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Speaker 1: to the fact that we also spoke earlier. There's been

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Speaker 1: a lot of people that are excited about GOP one

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Speaker 1: category weight loss, but did not want to take an injection.

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Speaker 1: There's a taboo of injection, there's needle phobia, and they've

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Speaker 1: been waiting. So we are super excited that we're finally

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Speaker 1: having an offering for this large group of people that

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Speaker 1: have been wanting a pill.

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Speaker 2: And critically, you have a couple months here when it

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Speaker 2: comes to Eli Lily, they're slated to get approval sometime

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Speaker 2: in the next couple months. How do you prevent your

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Speaker 2: patients from switching to Lily's pill, which I understand doesn't

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Speaker 2: have exactly the same food restrictions as yours does. Once

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Speaker 2: that is on the market.

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Speaker 1: A couple of points, when we started actually deciding how

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Speaker 1: to go into the oral segment and decided that we

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Speaker 1: should put our protein and peptide encapsulate it and take

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Speaker 1: that route, most people thought that this is going to

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Speaker 1: be impossible. Scientifically, you don't find examples of the protein

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Speaker 1: large protein peptides going inside orally and not being dissolved

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Speaker 1: by the enzymes of your stomach. We were able to

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Speaker 1: do that magically, I would say, But now, of course

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Speaker 1: we're getting the fruits of that. We have for the

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Speaker 1: first time the efficacy of our pill at sixteen point

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Speaker 1: six percent when you take the drug being exactly equal

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Speaker 1: to the pen version of it, the vigo vi pen

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Speaker 1: again at sixteen point six percent, That of course is

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Speaker 1: second to none. When you take a look at the

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Speaker 1: data from all of our competition in late pipeline or

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Speaker 1: early pipeline, no one has that efficacy. That I think

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Speaker 1: is a big leap that we will talk to. Not

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Speaker 1: least of course VGOVI pill also have the CV benefits

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Speaker 1: that our competition does not have at this point, so

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Speaker 1: I'm incredibly grateful for that. Now you talked about restrictions.

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Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of drugs that have restrictions,

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Speaker 1: including our own diabetes version of this called Rebulses, where

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Speaker 1: we have one and a half million patients on the

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Speaker 1: product and not complaining whatsoever about that restrictions. We have

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Speaker 1: this simple saying of sip and go. So I'm very

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Speaker 1: thankful that we basically have been able to prove that

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Speaker 1: on the market with Rebulses, and I'm very optimistic that

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Speaker 1: vigovi pill will show the same.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about production of the pill,

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Speaker 2: because you think about the amount that you need of

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Speaker 2: the drug ingredient for the pill versus the shots. How

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Speaker 2: profit is it to make and produce the pills versus

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Speaker 2: the shots.

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Speaker 1: Well, if you could not make any financial gains or

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Speaker 1: profits out of it, then we probably would not have

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Speaker 1: launched it. So we have made a couple of things

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Speaker 1: very clear. Again, it comes back to the skepticism that

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Speaker 1: growing their peptide route orally is the wrong one because

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Speaker 1: no one else has done it. That people first and

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Speaker 1: foremost started telling us it's not scientifically possible. When we

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Speaker 1: prove that right, then they started focusing well can you

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Speaker 1: produce enough of it? And is it profitable? And we

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Speaker 1: basically tell people that we have produced more than enough

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Speaker 1: of it, that's why we're launching it, and that we

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Speaker 1: are actually going to make a decent business out of this.

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Speaker 1: So I'm very optimistic about this pill as we go forward.

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Speaker 1: And again the single biggest difference, and people have not

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Speaker 1: understood that this is not a chemical entity, small molecule

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Speaker 1: as almost all pills are. Because of that, you have

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Speaker 1: an incredibly potent, effective pill at hand which we have

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Speaker 1: uniquely learned how to scale it and of course make

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Speaker 1: a decent business out of it.

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Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about pricing as well,

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Speaker 2: because you were one of several drug companies that signed

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Speaker 2: pricing deals with the White House at the end of

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Speaker 2: last year. So you think about medicare you think about Medicaid?

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Speaker 2: How much of your obesity business do you think could

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Speaker 2: actually come from those two avenues.

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Speaker 1: What we have seen recently. Of course, the Lion's share

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Speaker 1: of the business still is through the insured channels, and

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Speaker 1: I think for a long time it probably remains that.

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Speaker 1: But you have also seen that unfortunately through the insurance channels,

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Speaker 1: even though the sheer number of people that have insurances

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Speaker 1: are large, So fifty five million people are insured with

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Speaker 1: our Vigovi product. Because of all the restrictions that are

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Speaker 1: put upon them, the pre authorizations and basically a lot

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Speaker 1: of questionnaires that they need to fill, many of these

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Speaker 1: patients preferred to go through the cash channels and pay

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Speaker 1: amount of money albeit a bit larger than their copy,

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Speaker 1: but source the product from the cash channel. So we

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Speaker 1: have seen both for us as well as our competition,

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Speaker 1: that the growth recently has been through the cash channels.

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Speaker 1: We will work very well with both of these channels.

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Speaker 1: We will continue, of course working incredibly tight with our

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Speaker 1: partners in the in short section, but continue to develop

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Speaker 1: the cash channels as we do think that this is

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Speaker 1: the future in many ways.

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Speaker 2: That's really interesting when you talk about, you know, the

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Speaker 2: growth coming from the cash channel, are you able to

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Speaker 2: quantify that, you know the type of numbers that you

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Speaker 2: are seeing.

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Speaker 1: Well, last year we had basically had ten percent of

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Speaker 1: our sales coming through the cash channels, and that we

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Speaker 1: publicly said it's not good enough for our competition. I

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Speaker 1: believe the number was around thirty percent or so, So

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Speaker 1: we have set ourselves the goal to increase the number

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Speaker 1: and go forward. But we also recognize that many patients

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Speaker 1: don't necessarily want to come to your own website. We

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Speaker 1: have a website called Noble Care Pharmacy dot com, which

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Speaker 1: is good and now we have revamped it and I'm

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Speaker 1: very proud of it. But the truth is that some

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Speaker 1: people actually like to source the product from Row, from

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Speaker 1: Life MD, from Weight Watchers, from Amazon Pharmacy, and we

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Speaker 1: should be able to basically allow them rather than try

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Speaker 1: to force them to only come through our own channel.

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Speaker 1: So what you have seen from our company over the

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Speaker 1: last five six months is major number of partnerships with

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Speaker 1: all of these players so that patients don't need to

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Speaker 1: move away from wherever they are, will join them and

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Speaker 1: meet them where they are.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fascinating, especially when it comes to the telehealth platforms.

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Speaker 2: It feels like that's becoming ubiquitous in American life. I

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Speaker 2: do want to talk a little bit about, you know,

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Speaker 2: potential catalysts from here. Obviously the pill in that approval

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Speaker 2: was a big one, but you think about the readout

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Speaker 2: that you're seeing when it comes to redefine for that

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Speaker 2: is cagrisama versus set bound. My understanding that's due in

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Speaker 2: the first quarter. What's your consonance level as you're heading

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Speaker 2: into that.

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Speaker 1: We have we have two trials looking forward to. There's

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Speaker 1: redefined four and Redefine eleven. I would say. On redefined four,

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Speaker 1: we are trying to get non inferiority, so so that's

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Speaker 1: really important to to to speak to. On redefined eleven,

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Speaker 1: we have re changed our methodology and redesigned the trial

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Speaker 1: a bit differently. It's here with American patients only, and

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Speaker 1: we are asking the patients to tight trate, albeit at

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Speaker 1: their own pace. So so I'm a little bit looking

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Speaker 1: more forward to redefine eleven, I would say. But but

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Speaker 1: on both of those we will once again prove that

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Speaker 1: Tagrick Semma is the next generation of the product, and

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Speaker 1: and it's going to have not only a very decent efficacy,

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Speaker 1: much more than what we see in the market currently today,

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Speaker 1: but also with a very reasonable tolerability, which I think

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Speaker 1: comes from the amline molecule that really has proven to

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Speaker 1: be a fantastic molecule in weight management when especially comes

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Speaker 1: to tolerability.

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Speaker 2: So redefine four, but especially redefine eleven, we'll be keeping

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Speaker 2: an eye out for that. I do have to ask

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Speaker 2: you a little bit when it comes to the politics

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Speaker 2: of it all. We know the President Donald Trump isn't

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Speaker 2: a feud if you want to call it, with Denmark

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Speaker 2: over Greenland. Of course, you are based in Denmark. How

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Speaker 2: do you make sure that what's going on at the

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Speaker 2: government level doesn't impact your own dealings with the Trump administration?

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Speaker 1: So I learned a long time ago that one of

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Speaker 1: the benefits of working in the pharmaceutical industry is you

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Speaker 1: could basically tell both sides of the of the of

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Speaker 1: the politics that I'm here for the patients. My job

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Speaker 1: is to put the patients at the center of everything

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Speaker 1: that I do, and patients are my politics. And interesting enough,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't matter if you're the right side or the

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Speaker 1: left side of the political spectrum. You understand that because

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Speaker 1: both sides often agree that improving health especially at scales

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Speaker 1: like we do, is the most important thing. So I

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Speaker 1: will leave the politics to the politicians, and my job

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Speaker 1: is to really focus around expanding access to healthcare, which

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Speaker 1: my company is synonymous for.

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Speaker 2: Patients are your politics. I like that. I do want

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Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about AI. We are sitting

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Speaker 2: here having this conversation in San Francisco, and AI and

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Speaker 2: its potential when it comes to the health industry has

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Speaker 2: definitely emerged as a theme. You think about Eli Lilly,

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Speaker 2: the partnerships that they've signed with in Video, the news

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Speaker 2: from this conference that in Video will invest a billion

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Speaker 2: dollars in developing a lab with Eli Lilly. How are

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Speaker 2: you thinking about AI when it comes to your business

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Speaker 2: and could you anticipate Novo signing some sort of similar

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Speaker 2: partnership with one of these AI companies.

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Speaker 1: I would say that when you think about technology as

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Speaker 1: a whole and pharmaceuticals, the pharma industry has been a

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Speaker 1: bit conservative adapting technology more much less than some of

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Speaker 1: the other, of course industries that you see predominantly, maybe

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Speaker 1: because as humans we have shied away about sharing our

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Speaker 1: health related data as much as we talk about where

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Speaker 1: we ate and where we walked on Instagram or Facebook,

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Speaker 1: coming to discussing our health issues has been a little

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Speaker 1: bit more reserved. That is changing. I think an AI

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Speaker 1: is really becoming an interesting topic and I have no

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Speaker 1: doubt AI will answer many of the questions we have

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Speaker 1: not been able to answer. If you think about our industry,

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Speaker 1: it's a lot about trials and errors and really trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out will this work or not. With the

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Speaker 1: help of AI, I think those answers will be addressed

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Speaker 1: much differently than we have been able to do without them.

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Speaker 1: So I think from discovery to research, AI is going

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Speaker 1: to play a major role in understanding science and bringing

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Speaker 1: molecules and drugs faster to markets. But also when you

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Speaker 1: get into the regulatory front and being able to file

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Speaker 1: for approvals, I think you can also shorten the time.

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Speaker 1: So my hope is in years to come you will

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Speaker 1: see from the onset of an idea from a scientist

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Speaker 1: to a placement of a product in a pharmacy, you

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Speaker 1: will see a shorter time horizon than today's ten to

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Speaker 1: fifteen years, which ultimately will benefit the patience