TUESDAY, March 25, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company, has signed a major deal worth up to $2 billion for the rights to a new obesity and diabetes drug, the company announced March 24. The drug, called UBT251, is being developed by United Bio-Technology (Hengqin) Co., a Chinese pharmaceutical company.

It was only a matter of time until the GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy were superseded, and now it looks like we'll have the next generation of these breakthrough weight loss and diabetes medicines on shelves by early next year.

Novo Nordisk said it had agreed to license a potential rival to its weight-loss drug Ozempic from a Chinese company. The Danish pharma company said it would pay $200 million upfront and up to $1.8 billion in milestone payments to United Laboratories International for the rights to UBT251,