Eli Lilly's president of international business told Reuters on Wednesday that the company has established a leading position in obesity drug markets across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and hopes to replicate its dominant advantage in the US market globally. Patrik Jonsson stated that the pharmaceutical company is applying a "consumer-oriented" business strategy similar to the US market worldwide, including partnerships with telemedicine and digital platforms, covering patient populations from the UK, China to the UAE – most of whom pay out-of-pocket for weight loss medications.

"We quickly learned from the US market that putting consumers at the center is crucial," Jonsson said. He noted that Eli Lilly has already applied this model in markets such as Australia and China, including establishing partnerships with e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com in China.

Despite launching several months later than competitor Novo Nordisk's weight loss drug Wegovy injection, Eli Lilly still rapidly captured market share in Europe. Subsequently, the company launched its weight loss drug "Mounjaro" in Mexico, Brazil, India, and China this year. Jonsson mentioned that Eli Lilly had delayed launch plans in some markets to ensure stable supply, thereby avoiding repeating Novo Nordisk's experience of "limited launches" in 2023 and 2024 due to production capacity constraints.

"Even though many countries wanted to introduce Mounjaro earlier, we always waited until we were confident of achieving stable supply before launching," Jonsson said. Although Eli Lilly initially adopted limited supply models in a few countries, the related restrictions were clearly communicated to the market and typically lifted within months.

He also pointed out that Eli Lilly has the advantage of rapidly increasing Mounjaro supply across multiple markets because the drug has various production specifications, including both auto-injection pen and vial formulations.

In 2021, Novo Nordisk was first to launch highly effective GLP-1 class obesity drugs, but Eli Lilly achieved a turnaround this year – Mounjaro's total prescriptions now exceed those of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy. The surge in global demand for weight loss drugs has put pressure on both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly's supply chains.

Since the beginning of this year, Eli Lilly's stock price has fallen approximately 1%, while Novo Nordisk's stock price has declined 41% over the same period.