The semaglutide franchise is changing up its branding as Novo Nordisk, seeing the cultural phenomenon that has become Ozempic, is retiring the Rybelsus name in favor of its better-known brand.
Meet the “Ozempic pill,” a newly tweaked formulation of Novo’s Type 2 diabetes tablet Rybelsus, which is slightly smaller and uses a new coating and eschews its former badge.
“The Rybelsus brand won’t be carried forward but the tablets will continue under the iconic brand of Ozempic,” said Ed Cinca, SVP of marketing and patient solutions at Novo Nordisk, in an interview with Fierce Pharma Marketing. Cinca helped launch Ozempic and Rybelsus.
This changeup comes from two ways of thinking: simplicity in marketing and tapping into the success of the Ozempic brand.
“The Type 2 diabetes market is very complex,” Cinca said, “and there are a multitude of options. The GLP-1 class itself has grown significantly ever since the introduction of Ozempic. Since the [approval of injectable Ozempic] in 2018, use of these drugs has gone up 10x in the U.S., and the market for these drugs has also grown.
“What we want to achieve now is to make things simple: We want people to know they can receive Ozempic holistically: either in a pen form or now in a pill and really try to simplify things for the customer.”
Cinca describes it as a “one, two, three: one brand; two presentations and effectively three disease states between Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease.”
It’s also hard for Novo to ignore how Ozempic has in recent years become a household name and one frequently used in the media, by social media influencers and celebrities. Though often confused for Wegovy, the obesity brand of semaglutide, the name has become a cultural phenomenon.
Think of drugs like Prozac and Viagra, medicines that went well beyond their original names and indications and helped shape a cultural era. Ozempic, too, has helped shape that era in the 2020s.
Using this already essentially free marketing to envelope Rybelsus into is a no brainer. That name was also in danger of simply becoming overshadowed by its better known parent.
“For better or worse it’s a brand icon and I wear this as a badge of honor in how the Ozempic brand has grown,” Cinca explained. “But it also presents its challenges from the perspective of becoming a category name because many other GLP-1s, or those wanting to be associated with this class, they like to carry all the benefits of Ozempic unto themselves.
“That’s not the case. Ozempic really does stand apart.” That’s another strong reason for the company to double down on its new branding. And, as part of that, a core message of its campaign for this change is the tagline: “There is only one Ozempic.”
Anatomy of a relaunch
As for the logistics that went into the Ozempic pill’s debut, the move is not just a name change but also leverages adjustments to the original formulation of oral semaglutide for Type 2 diabetes.
“With this new formulation, we were able to improve the absorption, if you will, the bioavailability of semaglutide,” Michael Radin, M.D., Novo’s executive director of diabetes medical affairs, said in an interview with Fierce. “So, now we can bring a smaller tablet to patients with slightly lower milligram doses of semaglutide, but they’re equivalent in both efficacy and safety versus what was on the market for Rybelsus.”
In turn, the 3-, 7- and 14-mg doses of Rybelsus are equivalent, respectively, to the new 1.5-, 4- and 9-mg strengths for the Ozempic pill, Radin explained.
Meanwhile, as with Novo’s other recent GLP-1 launches, the company will be leveraging its direct-to-patient NovoCare pharmacy and certain other telehealth providers to help make the Ozempic pill available across varied channels.
While Type 2 diabetes represents a more traditional pharmaceutical market than that for obesity meds like Wegovy, bringing the Ozempic pill onto the platform provides “concordance” for doctors and patients, Jamey Millar, Novo’s EVP of U.S. operations, noted in a separate interview.
“Prescribers can offer an injectable form or an oral form of the same semaglutide Ozempic brand that they know of,” he said, “and consumers have flexibility and optionality between an injectable form and an oral form, and that concordance is very helpful, just from an awareness, branding and recognition perspective.”
In parallel, the company is offering the new pill through some 70,000 brick-and-mortar pharmacies, and additionally, Novo is manufacturing the new Ozempic format end-to-end in the United States, largely through investments in its North Carolina operations, Millar said.
With the context of supply constraints that hampered both Novo’s and Lilly’s early GLP-1 launches, Millar stressed that Novo feels “very confident in our ability to securely and reliably, dependably supply the U.S. marketplace, both with the Ozempic pill and Wegovy pill.”
Rybelsus will now be discontinued as a brand across the U.S., with Ozempic pill branding and campaigns taking over. “That rebranding will be approached over the year,” Cinca said, “We will now start making more introductions for the Ozempic pill being available and for the broader brand that you can now get Ozempic as a pen or a pill.”
As Novo sunsets Rybelsus, Cinca also believes this rebranding could help boost scripts of the pill.
“We do anticipate this will have great resonance with our customers because we know many patients prefer a pill over a pen. Now they can be on a branded pill that is a GLP-1, and now that is Ozempic pill.”
The Wegovy brand will not change except for the addition of the Wegovy pill, announced at the start of the year, in addition to Wegovy injection.
This comes amid a major new franchise in tirzepatide from Novo’s longtime rival El Lilly, a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist for diabetes and obesity under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound, both of which are rivaling Novo’s sales and branding iconography.
Lilly also recently launched its newly approved GLP-1 drug Foundayo in the U.S., made from the ingredient orforglipron. This becomes a new direct rival for Wegovy pill.
These latest changes to the Ozempic are U.S.-only: The Rybelsus branding will continue to exist outside of the country. As the drug is also being made and sold solely in the U.S. in this form and branding, Cinca said the message is that this is “made in America for Americans.”
Rybelsus made history as the first GLP-1 drug to come in a tablet form when it was approved by the FDA in 2019. Current Rybelsus patients “should continue their medication as directed,” Novo said in a statement, but “speak with their healthcare professionals about transitioning to the Ozempic pill, as appropriate.”
The changeup was first announced in February, but the new pill will officially start rolling out Monday, May 4.
