For roughly 40% of American adults living with obesity, the medical playbook has barely changed in decades: Eat less, move more, and if that fails, wait until the disease progresses far enough to justify surgery. GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound have broken that script—but according to Robin Wenzel, head of Wells Fargo Industry Insights, the drugs are exposing a harder problem than obesity itself: who can afford to wait for them to work.
“It’s a game-changer,” Wenzel told Fortune, describing how GLP-1s have shifted obesity treatment “upstream”—from late-stage interventions like gastric bypass and orthopedic surgery toward proactive weight management that can head off disease before it starts. “That’s what we’re seeing, how this filters through the economics within healthcare.”
