Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 Weight Loss Drug Wegovy Is Not a Panacea for Obesity

April 1, 2024 jasabacklink News 0

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Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) has added billions of dollars in market capitalization over the ongoing craze around the GLP-1 anti-obesity and anti-diabetes drugs. However, the Danish pharma giant’s most recognizable weight loss drug, Wegovy, is increasingly looking like a stepping stone instead of the promised panacea for the obesity pandemic.

For the benefit of those who might not be aware, the GLP-1 hormone plays an important role in suppressing hunger and regulating the production of insulin and glucose. After a meal, GLP-1 agonists raise the level of insulin, which decreases blood glucose levels. Simultaneously, these drugs reduce the speed at which the stomach empties its contents into the small intestine, thereby increasing the feeling of fullness and satiation. Novo Nordisk uses Semaglutide as its proprietary GLP-1 agonist in drugs that are marketed under Ozempic and Wegovy labels, with the former geared toward type-2 diabetes and the latter marketed as a treatment for obesity.

While Novo Nordisk currently has a number of additional GLP-1 drugs in the pipeline, including those that can be ingested and those that leverage both GLP-1 and Amylin agonists to offer better efficacy, Wegovy and Ozempic remain the company’s primary GLP-1 offerings for now. Yet, these drugs are increasingly besieged by concerns around efficacy, pricing, and side effects.

The Monthly Dose of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy GLP-1 Drug Costs Just Around $5, Yet It Retails for $1,300 in the US Without Any Insurance Coverage

A new study published in the JAMA Open Network toward the end of March has concluded that a monthly dose of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy drugs entails production costs of just around $5. However, Ozempic’s monthly dose is currently being sold in the US at $935.77 for those without any medical insurance coverage, with Wegovy commanding an even higher price tag at around $1,300 per month (sans insurance).

This discrepancy is all the more striking when one considers the fact that Ozempic is being sold in Germany for just around $59 per month. Granted, FDA approvals in the US usually entail elevated costs that can run into millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars. And, of course, Novo Nordisk is entitled to try to recoup its R&D expenses on the drug. Even so, the scale of this pricing discrepancy has all the characteristics of morphing into a controversy.

Pharmaceutical Companies Now Face Dozens of Lawsuits After Some People Suffered From Serious Side Effects Related to GLP-1 Drugs

GLP-1 drugs from the likes of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company do entail common side effects, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. However, a few people have reportedly encountered much more serious side effects, ranging from “unbearable pain” to gallbladder dysfunction.

Pharmaceutical companies now face over five dozen lawsuits related to the side effects induced by their GLP-1 offerings. Novo Nordisk, however, faces the largest number of lawsuits in this cohort.

Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy Might Not be as Effective at Weight Loss as Previously Believed

Wall Street Journal recently quoted doctors to report that between 10 and 15 percent of Wegovy users do not experience any material weight loss from this drug, owing to genetics, existing medical conditions, and prior weight loss methods that were leveraged by those users.

Interestingly, the percentage of non-responders is much lower for Eli Lilly and Company’s Mounjaro GLP-1 offering. This again harkens to our original thesis that Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy is not an anti-obesity panacea.

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