COPENHAGEN, Jan 5 — Denmark’s Novo Nordisk will offer its 1.5 and 4 ‍milligram Wegovy weightloss pills at US$149 (about RM685) per month ‌to self-paying patients in the United States from January 5, it said on ‍Monday.

It will from the same date offer the highest doses of the drug pill, of 9 and 25 milligram, at US$299 (about RM1,217) per month, it said on its website.

The price for the 4 milligram dose will ‍rise ‍to US$199 (about RM810) per month from April 15, it said.

The US Food and ​Drug Administration on December 22 approved the pill, giving Novo Nordisk a leg up as it looks to regain lost ground from rival ‌Eli Lilly.

The semaglutide pills contain the same active ingredient as injectable Wegovy ‍and Ozempic, and will be ‌sold ‍under the brand name Wegovy. 

Novo Nordisk ‍already sells an oral semaglutide for ‍type 2 diabetes, Rybelsus. — Reuters