Novo Nordisk gets landmark obesity pill approved, with production ‘underway’ in NC
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- FDA approved oral Wegovy; Novo Nordisk schedules full U.S. launch in Jan 2026.
- Johnston County produces the active ingredient; tablets are made in north Durham.
- Oral GLP-1 Wegovy removes injections and refrigeration, widening access.
In a milestone development Monday, the Food and Drug Administration green-lit an oral version of the obesity treatment Wegovy, the first FDA-approved GLP-1 pill for weight loss. Novo Nordisk, Wegovy’s maker, then confirmed where it will produce this new pill.
“We are prepared for a full U.S. launch in early January 2026, with manufacturing well underway in our North Carolina facilities,” a company spokesperson told The News & Observer in an emailed statement Monday.
In a separate statement, Novo Nordisk’s vice president of U.S. operations Dave Moore said oral Wegovy’s active ingredient, called semaglutide, will be made “from end-to-end in North Carolina.”
Glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, lowers appetites by mimicking a natural hormone to prolong feelings of fullness and suppress appetites. They rose to prominence in the early 2020s as injectables, with millions of American taking them both on- and off-label to shed pounds. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly dominate the sector, with the former making Ozempic and Wegovy and the latter producing Mounjaro and Zepbound.
The arrival of an oral GLP-1 specifically for weight loss is expected to alter this market, increasing accessibility and potentially lowering prices. The Wegovy pill erases the need for needles and requires no refrigeration. Novo Nordisk says oral Wegovy is as effective as injectable Wegovy and has been shown to decrease major cardiovascular risks. Users must wait 30 minutes after taking the pill to eat, drink or take other oral medications.
Weight loss is a big industry; more than 100 million U.S. adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with over 20 million facing severe obesity.
“This is encouraging news, as expanded GLP-1 options are welcome,” said Dr. Sarah Ro, director of the UNC Health Medical Group Weight Management Program. “Ultimately, patient uptake is driven largely by long-term affordability.”
A Novo Nordisk boon for Johnston County?
Novo Nordisk houses its only active pharmaceutical ingredients facility outside of Denmark in the Johnston County town of Clayton. Fully operational since 2023, this 825,000-square-foot site develops cells into powder, which the Danish drugmaker then ships to its north Durham tablet facility. The only pill Novo Nordisk previously made in the Triangle is the GLP-1 diabetes treatment Rybelsus, but the company prepared to pivot local production ahead of Wegovy’s anticipated approval.
“We have a strong, reliable supply of Wegovy pill,” Moore said. “We planned ahead, and over the years have made significant multi-billion dollar investments in building production capacity.”
In 2015, North Carolina awarded Novo Nordisk an economic incentive to hire 700 workers at its first foreign active pharmaceutical ingredient plant. This factory today shares a campus with two other Novo Nordisk sites, an injectables factory the company opened in the 1990s and an incoming $4.1 billion injectables expansion still under construction. Combined, these three sites make Novo Nordisk the largest private employer in fast-growing Johnston County, which borders Wake County to the southeast.
Despite massive successes in Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Nordisk has struggled over the past year and a half. The company’s share price has tumbled and rival Eli Lilly earlier this year overtook Novo Nordisk for GLP-1 market share. The Danish pharmaceutical company replaced its CEO in August, and the next month laid off 11% of its global workforce, impacting roughly the same percentage of its Johnston County staff.
Eli Lilly is pursuing its own oral version of its obesity drug Zepbound. The Indiana-based company operates two new campuses in North Carolina — in Research Triangle Park and outside of Charlotte in the city of Concord. Its GLP-1 pill for weight loss is called orforglipron and is not expected to come with the same dietary restrictions as Wegovy.
This story was originally published December 23, 2025 at 12:08 PM with the headline "Novo Nordisk gets landmark obesity pill approved, with production ‘underway’ in NC."
