Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical group from Denmark, plans to utilize its 500 out of 3000 strong personnel on sales in the United States to market its "new obesity drugs," Jakob Riis, Executive Vice President, told Reuters last Monday.
Novo Nordisk's formulation of diabetes drug, liraglutide that treats obesity, was approved by the health regulator in the US.
"We are talking about around 500 people (who) will be focused on launching Saxenda. It is as many as the market can absorb," Riis stated. However, he refused to give the exact date of the launching.
The injectable medicine, to be launched as Saxenda, is the 2nd treatment on obesity that was approved in 2014 following Contrave, an oral medication of Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. on September.
Novo Nordisk is the top maker of insulin in the world. The company focuses primarily on the treatment of diabetes. Riis mentioned that the company created the new drug for obesity over approximately 10 years and spent the amount of $1 billion from research up to marketing.
The firm sees the medicine as having a bestseller potential, that means an income of $1 billion every year for about 8-10 years of introduction throughout the world, analysts share the estimate.
The said drug was approved to be used by obese patients that have a minimum of one weight-related issue on health. Novo Nordisk stated that they expect to introduce Saxenda in the US in the first six months of 2015.
The site Saxenda was activated by Novo Nordisk during the holiday break. Pharma analysts from Nordea, a brokerage firm, expect that the drug will be available in the market soon.
"Novo's guidance is now for a H1 2015 launch of Saxenda in the U.S. We believe it should be more or less ready; we expect launch as soon as possible," Nordea's written note to its clients.
Citi Research's analyst forecast a highest sale amounting to $1.5 billion. The computation was based when the drug reach below 0.5% of the One Hundred Seven million population that was classified as obese in the US, $30 daily price, and 6 -12 months of medication.