Pill for obesity has Wall Street salivating as it could expand market

An effective obesity pill could change things by making it easier for doctors to prescribe the medications and for patients to adhere to them.

- David Wainer

The Ozempic craze has captured the national imagination, along with that of Wall Street.

The financial potential for drugs that lead to significant weight loss isn't hard to grasp. If even a small portion of the 40% of Americans who are obese get on these medications, the companies that offer them could be looking at massive blockbusters.

But to target the millions of potential patients, manufacturers need to offer more than just weight loss data. Things like price, convenience and access are also important. For now, Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and its sister drug, Wegovy, as well as Eli Lilly's Mounjaro (which is approved for diabetes but not yet for obesity) are expensive-costing over $10,000 a year and are only available as injections.

An effective pill could change things by making it easier for doctors to prescribe the medications and for patients to adhere to them. A simpler manufacturing process could also eventually bring the price tag down, though that won't happen quickly.

In a mid-stage study, the highest dose of an Eli Lilly experimental pill, orforglipron, led to 14.7% weight loss at week 36, according to data published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday. Last month, Novo Nordisk, which makes the medication semaglutide under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, said that a pill form of that drug helped adults in a trial lose an average 15.1% of their body weight over 68 weeks in a latestage study. The results were comparable to once-weekly Wegovy injections.

Novo now expects to file for regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe this year, though the launch could take time as the company ramps up its manufacturing capacity and deals with shortages of Ozempic and Wegovy.