Eli Lilly launches LillyDirect Pharmacy Solutions, with an independent, virtual medical weight-loss clinic, to provide direct consumer access to Zepbound.
Novo Nordisk is working with Omega Therapeutics, a start-up from the same stable as moderna, ‘…to develop an mRNA treatment for obesity…’ from STAT News.
Rebecca Torrence at Business Insider notes ‘…only a handful of companies have what it takes to make it big in the [weight-loss] market…’ namely WeightWatchers, Noom, and Ro.
The Wall Street Journal links weight loss and work success, in that ‘…people who have lost weight say that getting in shape has helped their careers.’
NEWS
Novo Nordisk and Omega Therapeutics, a start-up from the same Flagship Pioneering venture creation stable as moderna, are working ‘…to develop an mRNA treatment for obesity…’ from STAT News.
In addition, Novo is partnering with Celluarlity, another Flagship company, to develop a small molecule drug for fatty liver disease, that is closely linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Whilst 2023 was a big year for Novo and Eli Lilly, we will be seeing much more collaborative activity in 2024, with the large incumbents looking to smaller and more nimble disruptors to advance technological impact.
Eli Lilly launches LillyDirect Pharmacy Solutions, a ‘…connection to obesity telehealth care…’ with FORM, a three-year old independent, virtual medical weight-loss clinic, to provide direct consumer access to tirzetapide, or Zepbound.
Additional meds available are insulin for people with diabetes, and Emgality for migraine therapy.
Eli Lilly shares rose by 2.2% to hit a record high of $631.18 in early trading last Thursday; the same day saw a drop in WeightWatchers stock of 11%.
OPINION
Toward the tail end of 2023, Rebecca Torrence at Business Insider notes ‘…only a handful of companies have what it takes to make it big in the [weight-loss] market…’ namely WeightWatchers, Noom, and Ro.
Sari Kaganoff, at Rock Health says ‘…Those companies are already at scale, and there’s a competitive landscape now around who’s going to win.’
Yes, this might be true for D2C market domination, but most Americans want to be treated by their trusted provider, at the health system that manages the rest of their clinical care.
Key to responsible and impactful growth will be contracts with large employers, state health insurance plans, with regional and national payors too, in alignment with a multimodal approach to care, underpinned by a system of obesity management as a chronic disease.
D2C companies are simply not equipped for a comprehensive model of care delivery.
The Lancet writes, a simple pill or injection ‘…cannot be the sole basis for addressing the complexities of obesity.’
Our obesogenic environment promoting overproduction of cheap food and drinks, the need for increased physical activity, activation of sugar and soda taxes, and prevention per se, needs to be linked, side-by-side, to treatment efforts – a multimodal approach to care delivery is key, at individual and population levels.
The Wall Street Journal links weight loss and work success, in that ‘…people who have lost weight say that getting in shape has helped their careers…’ and even made them better at their jobs.
Jared Brubaker, a forty-something company executive from Indiana, lost 62 pounds and ‘…says he brings more energy to work these days.’
The data is clear; whilst the direct medical costs of managing the 110 million Americans with obesity surmount to $480 billion, there is a $1.2 trillion price tag to lost economic productivity – something that can and should address aggressively.
DATA
Published in Nature Medicine this week, from over 240,000 patients with overweight or obesity who were prescribed semaglutide or non GLP-1 anti-obesity medications, there was a lower risk for initial and recurrent suicidal ideation, with similar findings in over 1.5 million patients with diabetes, for those on semaglutide.
For initial suicidal ideation, there was a 73% lower risk, and 56% for recurrent suicidal ideation, for those on semaglutide, or Wegovy – while this data is not conclusive, it is certainly a value add to our understanding of the risks and benefits of the drug.
From over five hundred thousand patients studied in Israel, of whom 6% were on a GLP-1 drug, there was no significantly different risk for developing pancreatic cancer in the 5 to 7 years that followed, compared to those just on insulin therapy, in JAMA Network Open.
Study lead Dr. Rachel Danker, of Sheba Medical Center was ‘…was relieved to find out that no association was found between GLP-1 receptor agonist medications and pancreatic cancer incidence.’
