Today, a brief rundown of news from Novo Nordisk and Emergent BioSolutions, as well as updates from Sanofi, The Novo Nordisk Foundation and Jazz Pharmaceuticals that you may have missed.

U.S. physicians wrote more than 3,000 prescriptions for Novo Nordisk’s new Wegovy pill in the first week of its launch, according to data from the analytics company IQVIA and shared with Wall Street analysts. The 3,071 prescriptions equaled roughly 1.3% of the total written for Wegovy, according to Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat. The actual number for last week could be higher, too, because the figure only involved prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies and left out those obtained via online channels. The result “bodes very well for the [GLP-1] orals overall,” Raffat wrote, referring not only to Novo’s drug but Eli Lilly’s rival orforglipron, which could be approved in the second quarter. — Jonathan Gardner

Novo also got a lift from the U.K.’s drug regulator, which on Friday approved a higher-dose version of injectable Wegovy. The U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency cleared the 7.2 milligram weekly dose for people with a body mass index above 30 kilograms per square meter of height, which meets the clinical definition of obesity. Novo is also seeking an approval in the U.S. In a Phase 3b study, high-dose Wegovy helped people with obesity lose an average of about 21% of their body weight, a few percentage points more than those on the standard 2.4 milligram weekly maintenance dose. — Jonathan Gardner

Emergent BioSolutions will pay New York’s Office of the Attorney General $900,000 as part of a settlement arising from insider trading allegations involving former CEO Robert Kramer. In 2020, Emergent signed a deal to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca, but later found large batches of the product were contaminated and likely to be lost. Before those issues became public, Kramer sold his company shares for more than $10 million, the attorney general's office said Thursday. Aside from paying the $900,000 penalty, Emergent has also vowed to “improve its executive trading policies” as part of the agreement. The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, is seeking other damages and costs from Kramer. — Ben Fidler

Sanofi is reportedly interested in acquiring the eye drug developer Ocular Therapeutix, according to the French publication La Lettre. According to the report, the French pharmaceutical company previously made a “discreet” $16 per share offer for Ocular when the biotech was trading at around $10.50. Ocular rejected the bid, leading Sanofi to consider upping its proposal, the report said. Ocular has a prospective treatment for the “wet” form of age-related macular degeneration in late-stage testing, with results expected this quarter. — Delilah Alvarado

The Novo Nordisk Foundation said Thursday it is giving 736 million euros, or about $853 million, to the BioInnovation Institute to support startups across Denmark and Europe. The funding will run through 2035 and help the Copenhagen-based institute — a backer of life sciences and tech innovation — expand into new areas and geographies. The BioInnovation Institute was formed in 2018 and has since created and backed 131 startups. — Delilah Alvarado

Jazz Pharmaceuticals revealed during its J.P. Morgan presentation it has sold a priority review voucher the Food and Drug Administration awarded it upon the approval of the brain cancer drug Modeyso. Jazz said it sold the regulatory fast pass for $200 million, the highest price paid in such a deal since 2016. Modeyso came to Jazz via its $935 million buyout of Chimerix last March and was cleared by regulators five months later. — Delilah Alvarado