(Yicai) Nov. 18 -- The weight loss wonder drug developed by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk is about to officially launch in China.

Semaglutide injection Wegovy, which is the world's first and only weekly glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist for long-term weight management, is ready to begin sales in the Chinese market, Novo Nordisk announced on its official WeChat account yesterday.

China's National Medical Products Administration gave the green light to Novo Nordisk to sell Wegovy for use on overweight people with a body mass index of at least 30 kilograms per square meter and who suffer from at least one weight-related complication on June 25.

Novo Nordisk will sell Wegovy through multiple channels, including public and private hospitals and pharmacies, to satisfy the needs of China's obese population, the Bagsvaerd-based firm added.

The first prescription for Wegovy in China will be issued in a public hospital in Shanghai this week, Yicai learned from people familiar with the matter.

The supply of Wegovy is relatively tight, so patients who wish to receive a prescription need to make an appointment and complete a medication assessment in the outpatient department, a private hospital in Shanghai told Yicai. Another source told Yicai that the price of Wegovy is about CNY1,400 (USD194) per four-injection pack.

Wegovy has not yet been included in China's national medical insurance program, Zhou Xiaping, global senior vice president and president for China of Novo Nordisk, told Yicai. The company is actively exploring various paths, including commercial insurance, to improve the drug's affordability, Zhou added.

Wegovy is the same semaglutide injection as Ozempic. But while the first is used to manage weight loss in obese patients, the second is used to lower blood sugar for patients with type-2 diabetes. They are both developed by Novo Nordisk.

About 180 million adults in China suffer from obesity, creating huge market opportunities for multinational and domestic pharmaceutical companies. Wegovy has become a best-selling weight-loss drug globally in recent years, becoming an important source of revenue for Novo Nordisk.

Novo Nordisk has been very active in China this year. In April, the clinical trial application for its weight-loss drug Amycretin was approved by the NMPA. In June, Awiqli, another semaglutide drug to treat type-2 diabetes developed by the company, was approved for marketing and included in the Chinese national medical insurance program.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione