Posts Tagged ‘innovation’

Only a little more than a month ago, Novo Nordisk told Reuters that yes, they really did expect their next generation obesity drug, CagriSema, to deliver 25% weight loss in clinical trials. Then Thursday, the company disclosed topline results of 23% weight loss. Almost immediately, company’s stock price plunged by more than 20% – a […]

The wild ride that has been 2024 in the market for obesity care is not quite over yet. If you want to know exactly how wild this ride has been, take a moment to digest the results that the two leaders in obesity – Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk – have posted. The sales Lilly […]

A fascinating new study in Annals of Internal Medicine asks an important question. When people receive semaglutide for type 2 diabetes, are they less likely to smoke? This is not such a random question. In fact, clinicians are reporting striking reductions in addictive behaviors by people receiving it for obesity. So William Wang and colleagues […]

It’s been a rough month for investors in Lilly and Novo Nordisk – largely because of the prospects for rising competition to their wildly successful obesity medicines. Accelerating VK2735 This week, Viking Therapeutics announced they are accelerating development of injectable form of VK2735, a dual agonist that works on both GLP-1 and GIP receptors. This […]

Reports of first quarter business results from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly this week leave no room for doubt. The utilization of obesity treatment is growing at a rate that has caught both of these companies by surprise. Wegovy sales more than doubled in the first quarter of 2024. On top of that, new prescriptions […]

Firsts are worth celebrating. In this case, the cause for celebration is especially great. MASH or metabolic steatohepatitis is a disease that is growing dramatically more common and more harmful to the health of the population. Late this week, FDA approved resmetirom to be the first ever treatment for MASH with fibrosis. Note that the […]

Yet another GLP-1 agonist in development for obesity – survodutide – showed promising results yesterday from a phase 2 clinical trial in MASH. In case you missed the notice, MASH is the new acronym for what we used to label as NASH. We also note that MASLD has replaced NAFLD in the nomenclature alphabet soup […]

Some things never change. Half a century ago, editors of the Lancet proclaimed that “most obesity could, with care, be prevented.” Drugs have “limited usefulness” for treating obesity, they explained, and so, “we need to be more vigilant about preventing obesity throughout childhood.” After 50 years of relying on this advice, obesity prevalence has tripled. […]

Right now, the public and policy makers are grappling with innovations in obesity that we already have. But scientists are peering over the horizon. They are dreaming – asking important questions about long-term success in overcoming obesity. Stat News describes this as a “quest to eradicate obesity” – a frame for this work that misses […]

It’s long been overdue. For as long as we can remember, one presumption has been dominant. The real cure for obesity is (supposed to be) a change in lifestyle. It is the “foundation of obesity treatment” says just about everyone, even today. But the sand underneath that foundation is shifting. So the time has come […]