Top Pharma Companies Racing to Launch a Weight-Loss Pill

The obesity drug market is undergoing a major shift. For years, patients who wanted medical help losing weight had to deal with weekly injections. Now, the biggest names in pharmaceutical development are pouring billions of dollars into a simpler goal: an effective weight-loss pill you can take by mouth.

The global weight-loss drug market is expected to grow to more than $150 billion in revenue by the early 2030s, driven largely by the success of injectable drugs like Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Novo Nordisk's Wegovy. Investing.com But pills are widely seen as the next frontier. They are cheaper to manufacture, easier to distribute, and far more convenient for patients who are needle-averse.

Here is a look at the companies leading that charge.

Novo Nordisk: First to Market With a GLP-1 Pill

Novo Nordisk has already cleared the biggest hurdle. The Danish company became the first to receive FDA approval for a GLP-1 pill specifically for obesity, giving it a meaningful head start in what is shaping up to be one of the most competitive drug races in recent history. Yahoo Finance

The pill is a 25-mg oral version of semaglutide, the same active ingredient found in the injectable Wegovy. A 64-week late-stage study found that participants who took the highest dose lost an average of 16.6% of their body weight, compared to just 2.7% in the placebo group. Blue Water Healthy Living Those are numbers that, not long ago, would have been considered remarkable for any oral medication.

Eli Lilly: A Strong Challenger With Orforglipron

Eli Lilly is not far behind. The company's oral candidate, orforglipron, is a once-daily non-peptide GLP-1 agonist that helped overweight adults without diabetes lose 12.4% of their body weight over 72 weeks at the highest dose in a late-stage trial. Lilly is preparing to launch orforglipron in the U.S. as early as the second quarter of this year, pending FDA approval. Bitget

Orforglipron is a small-molecule non-peptide GLP-1 inhibitor, a type of drug that tends to be more stable in the stomach and can be taken with food (Obesity Medicine Association), which removes one of the inconveniences associated with Novo's semaglutide pill, which requires fasting before taking.

Structure Therapeutics: The Smaller Company Making Noise

Structure Therapeutics is developing two oral GLP-1 candidates and has shown results that have caught the attention of larger players. Its obesity pill, GSBR-1290, showed weight loss of up to 11.3% after 36 weeks in a 230-person mid-stage trial, and the company plans to begin late-stage development by mid-2026. Yahoo Finance

A second candidate, aleniglipron, helped study participants lose an average of 11% to 15% of their body weight after 36 weeks compared to placebo, depending on the dose, according to late-2025 phase 2 trial data. GoodRx

Roche: A Late Entrant With Promising Early Data

Roche entered the oral obesity race through its acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics. Its candidate, CT-966, produced a placebo-adjusted average weight loss of 6.1% within just four weeks in obese patients without diabetes in an early-stage trial. Yahoo Finance While 6% may sound modest compared to the numbers from Lilly or Novo, achieving that result in four weeks in an early study is a signal the drug community is taking seriously.

Roche has multiple obesity candidates in phase 2 trials as of late 2025 and is expected to enter the market in 2029 or later, according to Morningstar Equity Research. Morningstar

AstraZeneca: Building a Pipeline Through Partnership

AstraZeneca is taking a partnership-driven approach. Working with Eccogene, the company is advancing ECC5004, a once-daily GLP-1 receptor agonist pill that showed a promising weight-loss signal and a favorable safety profile in early-stage trials, with mid-stage trials planned under AstraZeneca's lead. The company is also partnering with Hansoh Pharma to test HS-10535, another oral small-molecule GLP-1 agonist, which is currently in lab studies. Yahoo Finance

Viking Therapeutics: Targeting Two Hormones at Once

Viking Therapeutics is developing an oral version of VK2735, which works differently from many of the other candidates in this space. Rather than targeting only GLP-1, VK2735 targets both GLP-1 and GIP, the two hormones that regulate the body's metabolism. Investing.com In a phase 2 study, an oral formulation of VK2735 helped participants lose up to 12% of their body weight. GoodRx

Pfizer: Back in the Race After a Setback

Pfizer had a rough stretch in the obesity pill space. The company discontinued its main obesity candidate, danuglipron, in April 2025 due to safety concerns. However, through the $10 billion acquisition of clinical-stage biotech Metsera in November 2025, Pfizer secured a new obesity pipeline and re-entered the competition. Morningstar

Why the Shift From Injections to Pills Matters

The appeal of a pill goes beyond convenience. Pills are easier and cheaper to manufacture, which could help address the supply constraints that initially held back the rollout of injectable GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. Yahoo Finance

There is also a pricing shift coming. Beginning in 2026, GLP-1 drug prices in the U.S. are expected to fall roughly 28%, driven by most-favored-nation pricing negotiations. As more companies bring drugs to market starting in 2027, further price declines are anticipated. Morningstar

The pharmaceutical platform Ozmosi predicted one to two GLP-1 launches annually starting in 2026, with 39 new GLP-1-related medications in development as of mid-2025. Obesity Medicine Association That pipeline means patients will have more choices, likely at lower prices, within the next few years.

The Bottom Line

The weight-loss pill race is not just a business story. For millions of people living with obesity who struggle with injections, limited access, or high costs, an affordable and effective daily pill could genuinely change what treatment looks like. With Novo already on the market, Lilly close behind, and a dozen companies in various stages of trials, the era of the weight-loss pill appears to be arriving faster than many expected.