WEIGHT-LOSS medication known as GLP-1 agonists assist customers shed fats, and with it the unfavorable well being results of weight problems. This will have life-changing results for the individuals who take them. Additionally it is more and more affecting the lives of company residents. Since June 2021, when Wegovy, the primary GLP-1 slimming jab, was launched in America, the market worth of WW (previously Weight Watchers) has crashed by 90%. On February twenty eighth Oprah Winfrey introduced that she would depart the weight-reduction plan agency’s board and promote all her shares so as to keep away from battle of curiosity round her use of GLP-1s. Meals giants comparable to Nestlé are already planning for a future the place the medication dampen demand for sugary snacks. Bosses of consumer-goods companies introduced up weight-loss medication twice as typically within the final full set of quarterly earnings calls, in late 2023, as that they had within the earlier one (see chart 1).
The medication’ greatest affect thus far, although, has been on their makers. Gross sales of Wegovy, developed by a Danish agency known as Novo Nordisk, swelled from $876m in 2022 to $4.5bn in 2023. The corporate expects double that this yr. Zepbound, launched in America in November by Eli Lilly, an American pharma large, is anticipated to generate $2.9bn in gross sales in its first full yr. Bloomberg, an information supplier, predicts that by 2030 yearly gross sales of weight-loss medicines will attain a staggering $80bn, placing them among the many greatest courses of medicine in historical past. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are anticipated to nook greater than 90% of the market (see chart 2).
Buyers’ urge for food for the duopoly’s shares has been as insatiable as dieters’ for its merchandise. Previously three years Novo Nordisk’s market capitalisation has expanded greater than three-fold, to $560bn, turning it into Europe’s most useful firm. Eli Lilly is value $740bn, greater than twice what it was in the beginning of 2023 (see chart 3). They’re now the world’s two greatest pharma companies by market worth. There’s excited speak of the trade’s first trillion-dollar firm—and the second. To dwell as much as these lofty expectations, nonetheless, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk should make sufficient of the medication to fulfill demand, widen the pool of sufferers and fend off a clutch of challengers.
GLP-1 agonists are astonishingly efficient and comparatively protected. Initially launched to assist diabetic sufferers by selling insulin manufacturing, they regulate the physique’s response to consuming and create a sense of fullness that suppresses urge for food. Sufferers who take them lose extra kilos than individuals on different weight-management plans. In medical trials customers of Wegovy shed about 15% of their physique weight on common. These on Zepbound misplaced round 20%.
Provided that 2.7bn individuals, or 38% of these aged older than 5, are overweight or obese, in response to the World Weight problems Federation, the medication are additionally in excessive demand. As a result of the injections have to be taken weekly quite than simply as soon as, the extra individuals begin remedy, the sooner complete demand rises. And it’s already rising so quick that Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are struggling to fulfill it.
Making the medication requires two important parts: the lively ingredient and the “skinny pens” that sufferers use to inject the drugs. Proper now each are laborious to seek out. Neither the Danish agency nor its American rival has defined why they can not pay money for extra of the mandatory chemical substances, however it’s clearly an issue. A scarcity of semaglutide, which supplies Wegovy its powers, has compelled Novo Nordisk to push again the launch of a capsule model of Wegovy, which works in addition to the shot, is less complicated to make and fewer disagreeable to manage, however which requires 20 instances the quantity of the lively ingredient.
Making sufficient of the thin pens for Wegovy and Zepbound has additionally been a problem. These units are made at specialised “fill-finish” factories. Each Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are pouring billions of {dollars} to spice up provide by teaming up with producers or constructing their very own capability. In November the American agency introduced plans to spend $2.5bn to construct a brand new manufacturing facility in Germany. The identical month Novo Nordisk mentioned it could make investments $6bn in increasing capability at its Danish web site. In February Novo Nordisk’s mother or father firm agreed to pay $16.5bn for Catalent, a giant American producer, to spice up manufacturing for America’s gargantuan market. Regardless of these investments, analysts anticipate demand to outstrip provide for at the very least just a few years.
The restricted manufacturing capability has helped the businesses in a technique, by masking one other drawback. Up to now solely half of the 110m overweight Individuals have entry to the medication by means of their medical insurance. To hit the rosy income forecasts, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk must make their medication obtainable to a wider group of sufferers. Medicare, a authorities health-care programme for the aged, is prohibited by legislation from protecting weight-loss medication. Non-public well being insurers are delay by the medication’ prices. Despite the fact that reductions imply they sometimes pay round 60% of Wegovy’s checklist worth in America of round $16,000 a yr, many insurance coverage companies are reluctant to cowl an costly drug that have to be taken indefinitely.
To deliver insurers on board, the 2 corporations are working trials to show that GLP-1s do extra than simply assist individuals drop pounds. A trial by Novo Nordisk discovered that Wegovy lowers the danger of main coronary heart issues by 20%. Eli Lilly is conducting a large trial with 15,000 individuals, set to complete in 2027, which research the impact of tirzepatide, the lively ingredient in Zepbound and Mounjaro, a associated diabetes medication, on the general well being and lifespan of overweight adults. There’s proof to recommend that GLP-1s additionally assist with circumstances comparable to sleep apnea, power kidney illness, Alzheimer’s illness and fatty liver illness. The usage of GLP-1 medication to deal with these sicknesses has not but been permitted by regulators. However David Risinger of Leerink Companions, an funding financial institution, believes that as extra well being advantages emerge, it can turn out to be laborious for insurers to disclaim protection.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk might in time take care of their capability and protection issues. That also leaves a 3rd problem: competitors. The booming market has unleashed a flood of wannabes, from massive pharma to biotechnology startups. Bloomberg estimates that near 100 candidates for weight-loss medication are in varied levels of improvement. Most imitators are refining the GLP-1 method to craft medication that outdo current ones by delivering extra weight reduction or simpler use.
One concept to spice up efficacy is to mix GLP-1 with different agonists. Zepbound already makes use of one known as GIP together with GLP-1 to extend vitality expenditure, lower fats accumulation and cut back nausea. Viking Therapeutics, an American biotech agency, makes use of the same cocktail. On February twenty seventh it shared trial information which confirmed that its anti-obesity medication helped sufferers lose extra weight even than Zepbound. Viking’s share worth greater than doubled. A drug in improvement by Boehringer Ingelheim, a German drug firm, and Zealand Pharma, a Danish biotech agency, makes use of one other agonist known as Glucagon together with GLP-1 to ship weight reduction and struggle liver ailments.
Different rivals, comparable to Pfizer, an American drug large, and Carmot Therapeutics, a biotech agency which in December was scooped up for $2.7bn by Roche, a Swiss behemoth, are focusing their efforts on eliminating needles. In addition to being cheaper to make and simpler to pop, oral medication don’t want refrigeration like many injectables do. This makes them extra appropriate than jabs for sufferers in poorer international locations, lots of which additionally face an weight problems disaster however lack sturdy “cold-chain” logistics. Ray Stevens, chief government of Construction Therapeutics, one other biotech agency pursuing oral weight-loss medication, believes that it’s nonetheless “early innings”. It will likely be some time earlier than pharma’s weight-loss winners are determined, he says.
The 2 pioneers do, nonetheless, have a head begin. The patents for Wegovy and Zepbound expire solely in 2032 and 2036, respectively. No rival product is about to go on sale. Creating a brand new drug takes on common 9 years, so even these already in early trials are unlikely to be obtainable earlier than 2027. Most essential, the prospect of years of wholesome income has not lulled both Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly into complacency. Quite the opposite, the 2 corporations are innovating furiously so as to preserve their edge over potential opponents—and to steal a march over each other.
Already Eli Lilly has closed Novo Nordisk’s early lead because of Zepbound’s better efficacy. The American drugmaker’s share worth relative to its forecast income within the coming yr is sort of twice that of its Danish rival. Novo Nordisk’s fortunes are way more carefully sure up with GLP-1 than these of Eli Lilly, which additionally has money-spinners in most cancers and immunology therapies. Novo Nordisk hopes its capsule and 7 different associated medication in varied levels of trials will assist it regain its lead. Eli Lilly, for its half, has six medication within the works, together with a promising capsule of its personal in late-stage trials that if all goes nicely could possibly be in pharmacies by 2026. Solely certainly one of them may be the primary to a trillion {dollars}. However as they race, hundreds of thousands of sufferers would be the actual winners. ■