A new shot that promises to be the Holy Grail of losing weight could be a golden ticket for big Pharma, as those desperate to lose weight could shell out up to $50 billion a year for the most effective medication ever.
A new shot promises to be the “Holy Grail” of weight loss
If a new drug lives up to its promise of helping people lose weight, it could become the best-selling medicine of all time, analysts predict, the Daily Mail reported.
In clinical trials, 2,500 obese people lost one-fifth of their body weight over the course of 72 weeks. According to the data from studies, the results appear to indicate that the new drug is the most effective weight loss medication that has ever been available.
The new drug, known as tirzepatide, will be sold under the brand name Mounjaro by manufacturer Eli Lilly and is administered by a once-per-week injection that can be done at home.
The medication works to suppress hunger by mimicking two appetite-regulating hormones (GLP-1 and GIP) in the pancreas that send signals to the brain to tell it that the body is full.
This suppression causes food to clear from the stomach more slowly by reducing the production of stomach acid, as well as the contractions of stomach muscles.
The difference between the new drug versus previous drugs that attempted to work in a similar way – such as Wegovy, made by the Danish company Novo Nordisk – is that those drugs only mimic one hormone, GLP-1, while tirzepatide mimics that and GIP both.
Big Pharma could see a $50 billion yearly profit
In the US, 41.9% of adults have obesity, according to a study entitled “The State of Obesity 2022,” according to the annual report from Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). The rate for Black Americans was even higher at 49.9%, followed by Hispanic adults at 45.6% and White adults at 41.4%.
With obesity at epidemic proportions, a drug that can actually deliver on its promise to help people achieve significant weight loss has the potential to be the most in-demand medication of all time.
Big Pharma’s Golden ticket from new weight loss shot tirzepatide could pocket drugmaker Eli Lilly up to $50 billion annually, analysts say.
Looking at the results of the clinical trials, Wall Street analysts are estimating the medication could bring in $25 billion per year, while Bank of America sees it at nearly double the amount at $48 billion.
If sales of the new weight loss drug achieve expectations, tirzepatide will become the best-selling drug of all time, surpassing Pfizer’s Covid jab, which raked in $36.8 billion in 2021, and more than double the $20.7 billion set by AbbVie’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira in the same year, the Mail reported.
