Several pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop obesity drugs and tap into a surge in consumer demand for the extremely profitable drugs. Sales of Eli Lilly’s (LLY) diabetes drug Mounjaro, just approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for obesity in the U.S., hit $1.41 billion in Q3, up more than 650% from a year ago. Also, sales from Novo Nordisk A/S’s (NOV) weight-loss drug Wegovy reached 9.6 billion kroner ($1.37 billion) in Q3, up 734% from a year ago. Revenue from both companies jumped 40% in Q3.
The pharmaceutical companies are struggling to keep up with the soaring demand for the new obesity drugs. The Mounjaro and Wegovy drugs were in short supply in the U.S. last year, and Novo Nordisk said it would continue to limit certain doses for its drug through next year. Eli Lilly’s CEO Ashkenazi noted recently that the supply situation for Mounjaro will continue to be an issue for “quite some time,” and that is before it received FDA approval as a weight-loss treatment.
