Novo Nordisk Tests Lower Wegovy Pill Doses as Oral Obesity Market Share Faces Its First Real Challenge

Novo Nordisk launches OASIS-5 trial to find minimum effective Wegovy dose, advances new obesity candidate, and continues buybacks amid flat stock.

The Danish pharma giant is quietly repositioning its weight-loss franchise around a simple question: how little of the drug can patients take and still get results?

Novo Nordisk has kicked off a new Phase 3 trial, OASIS-5, that will examine whether reduced maintenance doses of its oral Wegovy pill can hold up in 450 adults with obesity or overweight. The goal is to pin down the minimum effective dose — a direct response to a market dynamic the company can no longer ignore. According to the Wall Street Journal, US patients paying out of pocket are gravitating toward the cheapest strengths of the pill, which cost roughly half as much as the 25-mg maintenance dose. That pricing reality is reshaping demand patterns for what has become one of Novo's most important growth products.

The commercial stakes are considerable. In the second quarter of 2026, the oral Wegovy formulation generated 3.22 billion Danish kroner in sales, capturing approximately 90 percent of the US market for oral obesity medications. But that dominance is being tested: Eli Lilly's competing oral product, Foundayo, posted $98 million in revenue in its first full quarter on the market. Lower, equally effective doses could improve patient adherence and cut costs — advantages that would sharpen Novo's position in an increasingly price-sensitive fight.

A Pipeline Widening Beyond Semaglutide

Alongside the dosing study, Novo has quietly advanced a previously undisclosed obesity candidate into human testing. NNC0721-8060 is now in a Phase 1 trial involving 142 participants, with semaglutide serving as the active comparator. The move signals a deliberate effort to reduce reliance on a single mechanism of action and build out a successor generation to its established GLP-1 portfolio.

The company has also pointed to encouraging data from earlier work. At the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul in May, results from the Phase 3 OASIS 4 study showed that "early responders" on the oral 25-mg Wegovy dose achieved a 21.6 percent weight reduction by week 64. Among the 77.3 percent of patients with limited mobility, clinically meaningful improvements in physical function were observed.

Buybacks Continue, But the Share Price Stays Stuck

On the capital returns front, Novo remains active. Between August 10 and 14, the company repurchased one million B-shares at an average price of 303.45 Danish kroner, buying 200,000 shares per trading day. That brings year-to-date buybacks to 28.88 million shares for 8.08 billion kroner, within a program totaling 15 billion kroner.

The stock, however, has yet to catch a bid. Shares closed at 39.55 euros, down 0.9 percent, and remain 10 percent lower since the start of the year. The gap to the 52-week high of 54.86 euros, set in January, stands at 28 percent. Technical indicators paint a picture of indecision: the RSI sits at 42.8, neither oversold nor overbought, while annualized 30-day volatility of 40 percent reflects lingering investor unease.

Legal Clouds and Regulatory Headwinds

The litigation over gastrointestinal side effects linked to Ozempic and Wegovy continues to grow. The federal multidistrict litigation in the United States now encompasses 3,928 pending cases, with Eli Lilly also named as a defendant over its Mounjaro product. While no concrete financial liability has been established, the sheer scale of the caseload keeps the side-effect question front and center for the entire drug class.

Adding to the regulatory friction, the FDA has designated Novo's Bloomington manufacturing facility as "Official Action Indicated." The classification prompted partner Scholar Rock to remove the site from its own regulatory submission — a development that underscores the operational risks lurking beneath the surface.

A Multi-Front Strategy

Novo is now attacking on several fronts simultaneously: optimizing doses of existing products, advancing novel candidates, and rolling out Awiqli, the first once-weekly basal insulin for type 2 diabetes, which recently launched in the US market.

Whether this broad pipeline offensive can restore investor confidence depends on how quickly the new study data translates into compelling results. For now, the company is doing what it can — testing cheaper dosing options, buying back stock, and broadening its scientific bets — even as competitive pressure, regulatory questions, and legal exposure keep the shares well below their highs.