You’ve seen them on TV ads and TikTok, or heard them joked about at the Oscars: Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro. They’re weekly injections known as GLP-1 receptor agonists that help people lose a significant chunk of their body weight. These drugs can indeed produce dramatic results. But do they make people healthier?
Some people, yes. Others … the question is trickier than it sounds, and at least $100 billion a year is potentially riding on the answer. In the US alone, about 130 million adults are eligible for GLP-1s because of their weight and other health conditions. If just a third of Americans with severe obesity took them, US sales of weight loss drugs would swell more than 30 times, into an $80 billion industry, according to data analytics company Airfinity Ltd. Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. predict that GLP-1s for diabetes and obesity could become the biggest blockbusters of all time, bringing in as much as $150 billion a year globally.
But as of yet, most eligible people can’t get them, because they’re prohibitively expensive. In the US they cost upwards of $10,000 a year, potentially for the rest of someone’s life. (The drugs essentially work as appetite suppressants, and if people stop taking them, they may gain much of the weight back.)
