China's drug regulator accepts Novo Nordisk's application for oral Wegovy

SHANGHAI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Novo Nordisk said on Thursday that China's drug regulator had accepted its application to sell the oral version of its GLP-1 weight-loss drug Wegovy, as the Danish drugmaker seeks to catch up with rival Eli Lilly in the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market.

Novo, Lilly, Pfizer and local ‌firm Innovent Biologics are competing for market share with their versions of once-weekly GLP-1 weight-loss injections in China, as the country's National Health Commission has said the rate of overweight or obese people could reach more than 65% by 2030.

Novo and Lilly believe weight-loss pills could ​attract patients reluctant to use injections.

Novo has received early approval in the U.S. and Britain for its Wegovy pill and launched it in the U.S. this year. Lilly followed quickly, securing U.S. approval in April for its oral orforglipron, also belonging to the GLP-1 class of drugs that mimic a gut hormone to curb appetite and regulate blood sugar in patients with diabetes.

In China, Lilly moved first. The company said in March it submitted ​a marketing application for once-daily orforglipron to the Chinese regulator at ​the end ⁠of 2025. It could launch in China as soon as this year, ​an executive at the U.S. drugmaker has told Reuters. 

Novo has not disclosed timing for a possible China approval of the Wegovy pill. "We respect the regulatory review process and therefore we are not able to offer information on potential approval timelines," the Danish drugmaker said in a statement to Reuters. 

Sales of GLP-1 therapies for weight management could reach 30 billion yuan ($4.46 billion) in the next five to seven years, up from an estimated 3 billion to 4 billion yuan at present, Yang Huang, J.P. Morgan's head of China healthcare research, told Reuters recently. 

($1 = 6.7209 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Andrew Silver in Shanghai; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Rashmi Aich and Louise Heavens)