The next wave of obesity drugs could help people lose even more weight—and make some pharma companies a fortune.
Today in science from WirEd the race for the next ozempic the next wave of obesity drugs could help people lose even more weight and make some pharma companies a fortune.
By Emily Mullen in the 1980s, researchers identified a hormone in the human gut called glp, one that triggers the release of insulin, which controls blood sugar levels.
The discovery would eventually launch a new class of diabetes drugs known as GLP one receptor agonists, the first of which was approved in 2005.
The drug not only kept blood sugar in check, curiously, they also seemed to suppress appetite, and some people taking them lost a modest amount of weight.
The revelation led the US Food and Drug Administration to approve the first GLP one drug for weight loss in 2014, called liraglutide and sold under the brand name Saxenda, the weekly injectable led to a nearly 3% reduction in body weight on average in trial participants who took it.
By then, Novo Nordisk, the maker of Saxenda, was already working on a better GLPN one.
This new drug, semaglutide, was first approved for diabetes in 2017 under the brand name Ozempic, and then in 2021 for weight loss.
As we govee in trials of the drug, participants who received Wegovi lost around 15% of their initial body weight.
A total game changer hot on the heels of semaglutide is Eli Lillys Tirzepatide, approved as Monjaro in 2022 for diabetes and as Zep bound in 2023 for weight management.
In studies of zep bound, patients taking the highest dose lost around 21% of their body weight.
In a head to head comparison of Wegovi and Zepbound, published earlier this month, Zepbound was found more likely to lead to significant weight loss.
These drugs are now wildly popular, in shortage as a result, and hugely profitable for the companies making them.
Their success has sparked a frenzy among pharmaceutical companies looking for the next blockbuster weight loss drug, researchers are now racing to develop new anti obesity medications that are more effective, more convenient, or produce fewer side effects than the ones currently on the market.
The existing drugs can cause nausea, headaches, and other unpleasant side effects that lead some people to stop taking them.
They have other downsides too.
In the United States, they can cost more than $1,000 a month and aren't always covered by insurance.
They have to be injected under the skin once a week.
And while most people who stay on them see positive results, others dont lose much weight at all.
Not to mention ongoing shortages of glp ones are making it hard for patients to start and continue taking them as prescribed.
Having more drugs on the market would mean more choices for patients and more profits for the company selling them.