“‘Skinny Jabs’: Weight-Loss Drugs Set for New Boom As Generic Liraglutide Versions Emerge”, 2024-06-25 ():
Medicines that enable dramatic weight loss are likely to experience a new boom in uptake, experts have said, as the first generic versions [of liraglutide] hit the market this week at a lower cost than the original drugs…They include Wegovy [semaglutide] and Saxenda [liraglutide], which are licensed for weight loss, and Ozempic [semaglutide] and Victoza [liraglutide] which are licensed for type 2 diabetes but are often prescribed “off-label” as a weight-loss aid. All 4 mimic a gut hormone called GLP-1 and are produced by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
It announced on Tuesday that it was to invest more than $4bn in US plants manufacturing the injectable drugs to try to meet booming demand.
…Patents for Victoza and Saxenda have expired, according to Novo Nordisk. As a result, other drugmakers are working on generic versions. Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries the world’s largest generic drugmaker, launched a generic version of Victoza in the US on Monday. The move comes days after the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, tentatively approved London-based Hikma Pharmaceuticals’ generic version of Victoza.
…They are not alone: among others reported to be planning to launch their own generic liraglutide products (the active ingredient in Victoza and Saxenda) are Pfizer, Viatris’s Mylan and Novartis’s Sandoz.
Such drugs are cheaper than the originals. According to Teva, the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of its new generic will be 13.6% lower in price than Victoza at $469.60 for the two-pack and $704.40 for the 3-pack…In the UK, generic competition typically reduces prices paid by the NHS by as much as 80% to 90% after loss of exclusivity, according to the BGMA.
…But this is only the beginning, with Ozempic and Wegovy both losing patent protection in China in 2026, in Europe and Japan in 2031, and in the US in 2032.
…Dr Simon Cork of Anglia Ruskin University said competition in the form of new medications will also play a big role in any future pricing arrangements of those that now exist. Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro [tirzepatide] has just been approved for obesity in the UK and it is developing another weight-loss drug, retatrutide. “Competition will, I suspect, reduce the cost of these medications, particularly since the drugs coming on to the market often display more favourable weight loss than semaglutide”, he said.
…Victoza brought in $310m of sales for Novo Nordisk in the first 3 months of this year, down by 23% from a year earlier, while Saxenda’s first-quarter sales halved to $240m. Last year, Victoza made $1,200m of sales, down by 30% on 2022, while Saxenda posted revenues of $1.5bn, down 4%.
…Dr Ivan Koychev of the University of Oxford, who is researching the application of GLP-1 analogues in dementia patients, said demand for such drugs was currently outstripping supply as a result of the high prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes.