Eli Lilly (LLY) stock climbed to a record high in premarket trading on Thursday, rising nearly 3%, after Chinese regulators approved the company's oral weight-loss drug. The medication, orforglipron, will be sold in China under the brand name Foundayo, making it the first GLP-1 weight-loss pill cleared in the country, where only injections had previously been approved for weight management. The approval was first reported by Reuters.

The decision puts Lilly ahead of Danish rival Novo Nordisk in the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market. Novo Nordisk has applied to sell its oral Wegovy in China but has yet to receive clearance.

Trade Republic noted the approval on X:

China has approved Eli Lilly's oral GLP-1 drug, the first weight-loss pill of its kind in the country. Competitor Novo Nordisk's pill is still awaiting approval. pic.twitter.com/AdCK7M4sth

— Trade Republic (@traderepublic), November 12, 2026

Lilly has said oral medications could appeal to patients who are reluctant to use injections. Foundayo is taken once a day, with no food or water restrictions. GLP-1 drugs work by mimicking a naturally occurring gut hormone that helps regulate appetite and blood sugar.

A Pill Joins a Crowded Field

Foundayo will compete with Lilly's own once-weekly GLP-1 injection, as well as rival injectable treatments from Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, and Innovent Biologics. More oral candidates are also in the pipeline: Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals and Huadong Medicine have both applied to sell experimental GLP-1 weight-loss pills in China.

Novo Nordisk won Chinese approval for injectable Wegovy in 2024 and submitted its oral version for review in August; a decision remains pending. Those pending rulings, along with Lilly's undisclosed pricing and launch plans for China, are the near-term markers for how the country's oral GLP-1 competition takes shape.

The U.S. market already offers evidence of demand for pill-based options. Oral therapies have accounted for roughly one-third of obesity prescriptions since Novo's Wegovy pill launched there in January, according to Novo presentations from September.

The Numbers Behind the Push

J.P. Morgan analyst Yang Huang forecasts that annual GLP-1 weight-management sales in China could reach 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) within five to seven years, up from an estimated 3 billion to 4 billion yuan today. The projection comes amid rising obesity rates in China: the National Health Commission says the share of people who are overweight or obese could exceed 65% of the population by 2030, up from roughly 50% in 2020.

Foundayo has been on sale since winning approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April. Lilly reported $184 million in Foundayo revenue for the third quarter, bringing total sales since launch to $281 million. The pill is also available in the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates, and last month a European Medicines Agency committee recommended approval for adults with obesity, or for those who are overweight with related health conditions.

Lilly's overall third-quarter revenue rose 39% to $24.4 billion, driven by its Mounjaro and Zepbound products.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how it plans to price orforglipron in China or when the pill will be available there. On Thursday, a promotion that appeared to be for the drug surfaced on a JD.com mobile app; JD.com also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article was first published on Blockonomi.