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

SHANGHAI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO 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 LLY.N in the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market.

Novo, Lilly, Pfizer PFE.N and local firm Innovent Biologics 1801.HK 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 did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours on how long China's approval for the Wegovy pill might take.

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 and Rashmi Aich)