Key Points

• Novo Nordisk received FDA approval for a pill version of Wegovy, a weight-loss drug, causing its shares to jump.

• Eli Lilly’s stock fell following the approval of Novo Nordisk’s oral weight-loss medication.

• Eli Lilly plans to launch its own weight-loss pill, orforglipron, next year and has submitted it for FDA approval.

Eli Lilly stock was on the outside looking in on Tuesday as shares of Novo Nordisk, its rival in diabetes and weight-loss drugs, soared after the company secured regulatory approval for a weight-loss pill in the U.S.

Novo’s American depositary receipts were up 7.3% at $51.61 after the company announced late Monday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a pill version of Wegovy—the weight-loss version of the Danish company’s groundbreaking Ozempic drug and a competitor to Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. Novo said it expects to launch the Wegovy pill in the U.S. in early January.

“The pill is here,” Novo CEO Mike Doustdar said. “With today’s approval of the Wegovy pill, patients will have a convenient, once-daily pill that can help them lose as much weight as the original Wegovy injection.”

Eli Lilly stock was down 0.5% on Tuesday.

Both Lilly and Novo have emerged as key providers of drugs that help patients lose weight, both to treat diabetes and as a weight-management tool. So far, approved U.S. treatments are injectable with investors and patients hotly awaiting pill versions of drugs.

Lilly plans to launch a pill called orforglipron next year, and has submitted its application for approval to the FDA. The company said last week that studies showed orforglipron could work well to help patients keep weight off after using Zepbound or Wegovy injection treatments.