Wegovy pill sales beat forecasts as Novo widens its oral GLP 1 lead

Novo Nordisk reported Wegovy pill sales of DKK 5,394 million for the third quarter of 2026 on 4 November. The total beat the analyst consensus of 4.96 billion kroner compiled by Jefferies, according to BioPharma Dive, and it landed a week after Eli Lilly's rival pill Foundayo missed forecasts. Oral semaglutide stays approved on our board with a signal up. No stage changes, but the peptide tablet keeps its early commercial lead over the small molecule orforglipron.

Wegovy pill sales split by region

The quarterly financial report puts US sales of the tablet at DKK 4,178 million and sales in International Operations at DKK 1,216 million. Nine month sales reached DKK 10,868 million, a total the company says was lifted in the first quarter by wholesalers and telehealth partners stocking up before launch. BioPharma Dive converted the third quarter figure to about 811 million dollars. Novo said US prescriptions for the pill reached around 3.6 million in the quarter and more than 8 million since the 5 January launch, which it calls the strongest GLP-1 volume launch in the US so far. The company also estimates that the tablet holds around 80 percent of new to brand prescriptions in the US, counted across insured, cash and telehealth channels.

These are company figures, and the useful comparison is with forecasts. Jefferies put consensus at 4.96 billion kroner, so the quarter came in close to 9 percent above it. Group results also beat expectations. Novo reported adjusted net sales of DKK 79,195 million, up 4 percent at constant exchange rates, and moved its 2026 outlook to a range of minus 2 to plus 2 percent growth for adjusted sales and adjusted operating profit. The company tied the change to higher expectations for GLP-1 sales. That outlook is a company forecast, not a result. Novo shares rose more than 6 percent in early US trading to above 42 dollars, BioPharma Dive reported, against a price above 140 dollars in June 2024.

Foundayo and the oral GLP 1 race

The quarter sharpens the contrast with Lilly. Foundayo, the brand name for orforglipron, launched in the US in April and brought in 184 million dollars in the third quarter, 44 million dollars short of Wall Street estimates, according to BioPharma Dive. We covered that shortfall in Foundayo sales miss forecasts last week. On converted figures, the Novo tablet earned roughly four times what Foundayo did in the quarter, helped by a head start of about three months. The two pills differ in kind. Oral semaglutide is a peptide made to survive the gut as a tablet, while orforglipron is a non peptide small molecule. So far, the harder peptide route has produced the larger commercial base in the oral GLP-1 race.

On converted figures, the Novo tablet earned roughly four times what Foundayo did in the quarter, helped by a head start of about three months.

Sales of one pill are not the whole contest. Lilly said last week that it controls 63 percent of the US market for incretin drugs, a share built mostly on its weekly tirzepatide injections, and it reported retatrutide beating Ozempic in a head to head trial. Orforglipron also holds a positive CHMP opinion in the EU. The pill lead therefore sits inside a market where the injectable leader is still Lilly. Prescription data point the same way as the sales line, and Wegovy pill prescriptions recently set a US weekly record, though prescription counts measure demand rather than revenue. Neither company has run a head to head trial of the two pills, and indirect comparisons funded by each side point in opposite directions.

Oral semaglutide outside the United States

International Wegovy pill sales are smaller but growing. By the end of September the tablet was on sale in the United Arab Emirates, the UK and Germany, and Novo said later launches in Mexico, Spain, France and Poland bring International Operations to seven markets, or eight including the US. The company expects oral semaglutide to be available in more than 20 markets in 2027, with more launches planned this quarter. Those are plans, not completed launches. In the EU, Novo noted that the approved label includes cardiovascular outcome data from the SELECT trial. Access is uneven elsewhere. An expert committee of India's drug regulator held back permission and asked for local data, as we reported on oral Wegovy in India last week.

Novo is also working to widen the label. The report says the company filed a new drug application in China based on OASIS 4, a 64 week trial against placebo in 307 adults with obesity or overweight and at least one related condition. Weight fell 16.6 percent on oral semaglutide versus 2.7 percent on placebo, and Novo expects the Chinese review to finish around the turn of 2027 and 2028. The company has also submitted the pill to the FDA for MASH, a fatty liver disease, and started OASIS 5, a 60 week Phase 3 trial of lower strengths against placebo due to read out in the first half of 2028. In diabetes, oral semaglutide sold as Ozempic pill and Rybelsus earned DKK 4,938 million, down 10 percent at constant exchange rates.

What the strong quarter leaves open

A strong launch quarter does not erase Novo's wider problems, and BioPharma Dive listed several. The company has lost about two thirds of its market value since June 2024. Its pipeline has had a heart disease study setback and a failed comparison of CagriSema with Lilly's Zepbound, although the new report also cites REIMAGINE 5, where CagriSema beat a low tirzepatide dose on weight loss in type 2 diabetes. Novo also faces patent expiry on semaglutide several years before Lilly loses protection on tirzepatide. That expiry covers the pill too, because the tablet and the injection share one active ingredient. Novo also booked DKK 8.7 billion of non cash impairment charges in the quarter, tied to ziltivekimab and its manufacturing network, and reported operating profit fell 9 percent.

Leadership is changing at the same time. Novo said chief financial officer Karsten Munk Knudsen will leave by mutual agreement at the end of December 2026 after 27 years with the company, and Luigi La Corte, now chief financial officer of Galderma, will succeed him. On the evidence side, nothing new arrived this quarter. Strong Wegovy pill sales show that patients and payers are taking up the tablet, not that it works better than the trials showed. Pricing also calls for caution, since Novo said lower realised prices offset part of its volume growth in the US. The tablet's lead is real in revenue terms, but it is a lead of months, and it rests on a molecule whose patent clock runs ahead of Lilly's.

Conclusion

Wegovy pill sales of DKK 5,394 million beat consensus and kept oral semaglutide well ahead of Foundayo in the third quarter. The result moves no stage on our board. It strengthens the commercial case for a peptide tablet against a small molecule rival, but it adds nothing new on efficacy or safety. The next checkpoints are Novo's full year report, further international launches, the FDA review of the MASH filing and the EU decision on orforglipron. This is research reporting, not medical advice.