Making Weight-Loss Drugs Takes a Whole Lot of Muscle

In the obesity drug industry, two players have really been throwing their weight around. There isn’t a third in sight.

On Wednesday the CEO of Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company with a $253 billion market capitalization, told CNBC that the company won’t be joining the feeding frenzy for oh-so-trendy weight loss drugs. The reason? That pond has two very big fish. 

Picking Up Crumbs

The two big players in weight-loss land are Novo Nordisk, the company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly, which produces Zepbound and Mounjaro. Their respective market caps weigh in at $448 billion and $863 billion — granted, Novo Nordisk’s has been super-fueled by its pole position in the rapidly growing weight-loss drug market.

A few other Big Pharma companies have tried to catch the weight-loss train, including Pfizer and Roche, and a handful of startups have thrown their hat in the ring as well, but Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said that for relatively mid-sized pharma companies, he thinks new secondary markets are the way forward:

• “With obesity right now, we have two very entrenched large players, and I think for future entrants you have to find something new, some sort of new angle that either reduces the nausea and the vomiting or gives patients the ability to lose their weight and retain their muscle,” said Narasimhan.
• The after-care associated with weight-loss drugs is a whole sector in its own right, and has hit some big stumbling blocks as the number of qualified obesity doctors has not kept up with the skyrocketing demand for prescriptions.

Fauxzempic: Products that promise wondrous health benefits with zero side effects are nothing new, but according to a New York Times report, “Ozempic dupes” — i.e., non-pharmaceutical products that promise the same effects — have bloomed since the drug took off. One knock-off has been released by Kourtney Kardashian’s supplement company.