December 30, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Danish company Novo Nordisk announced that it will focus 500 of its 3,000 sales people in the U.S. to promote its new obesity drug, Saxenda (liraglutide). The drug is seen as a possible blockbuster, defined as sales of $1 billion annually.
The U.S. FDA’s Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee (EMDC) voted 14 to 1 in favor of Saxenda, and analysts believe the drug could generate $429 million in 2017 alone.
Best known for selling insulin and diabetes-related products, Novo Nordisk indicates it will be developing a portfolio of obesity-related products. “We are taking a whole portfolio approach,” said the company’s chief science officer, Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen in a statement, “pretty much like Novo Nordisk has done in diabetes, with different solutions for different people.”
In September the company announced it was creating an obesity research unit in Seattle. It would be co-located with the company’s Type 1 Diabetes Research Unit and was expected to be fully operational by the end of 2016.
“Our ambition,” said Thomsen in a statement, “is to drive scientific progress in the obesity disease area and through this identify and develop new treatment options for people with obesity.”
Novo Nordisk expects to begin marketing Saxenda in the U.S. in the first half of 2015. The drug is approved for use in chronically obese patients who have at least one weight-related health issue.
“We are talking about around 500 people (who) will be focused on launching Saxenda,” said company executive vice president, Jakob Riis, in a statement. “It is as many as the market can absorb.”
Market analysts with Citi Research have predicted peak sales of $1.5 billion. To do so, the drug would have to be picked up by less than 0.5 percent of the 107 million people in the U.S. who are classified as obese. The daily price would be $30 and the length of time used would be 6 to 12 months.
In clinical trials, Saxenda showed an average of 8 percent weight loss at 56 weeks compared to 2.6 percent for the patient group taking a placebo. In addition, those taking the drug showed statistically significant improvement in blood pressure, cardiovascular risk biomarkers, lipids and patient-reported quality of life.
The SCALE Phase 3 clinical trials tested Saxenda in 5,000 patients with obesity or who were overweight.
