Eli Lilly Wins U.K. Approval for Weight-Loss Pill as Novo CEO Defends Advertising Suit

The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Monday approved orforglipron, sold under the brand name Foundayo, for weight management and type 2 diabetes on prescription. It is the second GLP-1 weight-loss pill to enter the European market, following Novo's Wegovy pill, which launched there two months ago. The drug will still need a cost-effectiveness assessment by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence before it can be prescribed through the National Health Service.

The approval deepens a transatlantic rivalry that has also played out in court. Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar on Wednesday defended the company's lawsuit against Eli Lilly, telling CNBC that "competition has to be fierce, but it also has to be fair." Novo sued Lilly last month, alleging advertising for its injectable GLP-1 drugs misleads consumers by comparing Zepbound with an older, lower-dose version of Wegovy. Lilly has said it stands firmly behind its advertising.

Novo's complaint centers on a head-to-head trial Lilly conducted and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May 2025. That study showed the maximum tolerated dose of Zepbound yielded average weight loss of 20.2%, or about 50 pounds, over 72 weeks, compared with 13.7%, or roughly 33 pounds, for the then-maximum tolerated dose of Wegovy. But Novo argues the comparison is outdated because a newer 7.2 mg version of Wegovy, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in March, produced average weight loss of about 19% in a company study. Lilly responded that no head-to-head trial supports Novo's claim, and that Zepbound remains the most prescribed obesity medicine in the U.S.

The legal fight comes as competition intensifies in the fast-growing GLP-1 market. Doustdar acknowledged that Lilly has been "quite successful" in gaining volume and market share in injectables. Since the lawsuit was filed, Novo's shares have fallen 6%, while Eli Lilly's have risen nearly 4%.

The battle extends to oral medications. Wegovy's pill version received FDA approval in late December 2025 and launched in the U.S. in early January. Novo's Doustdar said prescriptions have surpassed 5 million, calling it the "best product launch in the history of pharmaceuticals." Foundayo was approved in the U.S. on April 1 and generated $98 million in second-quarter sales. In the U.K., an estimated 300,000 patients began taking the Wegovy pill in its first three weeks on the market, according to Novo.

Lilly has pointed to a practical advantage for Foundayo: it is a small-molecule medicine that can be taken without food restrictions, whereas the Wegovy pill must be taken first thing in the morning with a sip of water and no other food or drink for at least 30 minutes. Lilly CEO David Ricks previously attributed Foundayo's slower U.S. uptake to its being a completely new medicine that takes time to establish itself with doctors and patients.

Both companies have said weight-loss pills are expanding the market rather than cannibalizing injectable sales. "I could see a future where actually this market is, to a large extent, a pill market," Doustdar said this month.