While first-generation glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists have clearly taken the obesity market by storm, generating billions of dollars for Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly and Co., several other companies are developing follow-on products that could clean up the tolerability and adherence issues of Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide).
Amid a strengthening offensive against direct-to-consumer drug ads, two senators flagged a Super Bowl ad promoting compounded drugs as part of the company’s attack on the U.S. weight-loss industry that it said was built to keep Americans “sick and stuck.”
A week after the first IPO of the year was priced, obesity treatment developer Metsera Inc. and renal specialist Maze Therapeutics Inc. have begun trading on Nasdaq. Metsera (NASDAQ:MTSR) surged 47% on Jan. 31 to close at $26.50 per share while Maze (NASDAQ:MAZE) barely budged, closing three-tenths of a percentage point lower on the day.
Positive data for Veru Inc.’s enobosarm lend more weight to the potential progress of the company’s body-mass preservation program in patients taking Wegovy (semaglutide). The side effect of lean mass loss has dogged those taking GLP-1s. The study results didn’t support the company’s stock on the day of the data release as it had the previous four weeks.
As investors look ahead to data shortly from Veru Inc. with enobosarm, the weight-loss space remains hot, with Novo Nordisk A/S reporting favorable top-line results from a phase Ib/IIa trial evaluating amycretin, a unimolecular GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist for once weekly subcutaneous administration in people overweight or with obesity.
A study published in Jama Network Open in December indicated a direct correlation between adult weight loss and reduced health care spending, suggesting that current glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) should be reimbursed by Medicare and employer insurances for obesity and overweight conditions.
A global commission has proposed a fundamental change to the way obesity is defined and diagnosed. If the change is implemented, obesity would be considered a health risk in some contexts, and a disease in others. “The commission is reframing obesity... in a way that allows for the nuanced reality of obesity,” Robert Eckel told reporters at a press briefing announcing the proposal, which was published online in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology on Jan. 14, 2025.
It’s one thing for the scientific community to propose a fundamental change to the way obesity is defined and diagnosed. But it’s another for that proposal to be adopted by regulators, especially when the current definition that relies primarily on the body mass index is entrenched in guidance and obesity drug development and approval.
It’s one thing for the scientific community to propose a fundamental change to the way obesity is defined and diagnosed. But it’s another for that proposal to be adopted by regulators, especially when the current definition that relies primarily on the body mass index is entrenched in guidance and obesity drug development and approval.
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