Roche, Pfizer Race To Find Next Ozempic As Pharma Giants Hustle To Join Obesity Treatment Market

How important it is to have the latest blockbuster in your product portfolio. The pharmaceuticals industry has displayed this over and again in recent years — getting a Covid vaccine to market during the pandemic, and now tackling the obesity epidemic.

Those with obesity drugs already on the market have proved, through their share price moves in the past months, what it means to have this type of treatment on your roster.

Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) — with two obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy — has jumped by around 300% since it bought Ozempic to the market in 2019, while Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) is up nearly 90% since the launch of Mounjaro in May 2022.

By contrast, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), which announced only a few days ago that it was stopping development of a twice daily version of its experimental weight loss pill, is down 41% this year. Pfizer does still plan to bring a once-a-day pill to market, but not until next year.

On the same day, as Pfizer’s announcement, Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) announced successful tests of its weight-loss drug and its shares have jumped 48% in just two days.

Roche, which is down 10% this year, announced on Monday that it was buying Carmot Therapeutics for $3.1 billion. Currently, Carmot has two obesity drugs in phase-2 trails and one in phase-1 development.

Also Read: Tale Of Two Investigational Obesity Drugs: Altimmune Stock Jumps, While Pfizer Trades Lower

Obesity Epidemic Provides Ground For New Blockbusters

The World Health Organization has described obesity as a global epidemic, saying that at least 2.8 million people a year die from being overweight. The prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016 according to WHO figures.

Being overweight or obese makes it more likely that serious conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease will develop.

And, indeed, it was for these very reasons that the above drugs were developed. However, such has their popularity grown since they’ve been found to be so successful in aiding weight loss, they’re becoming the latest boutique drugs.

Purchased over the counter by those who can afford them for weight loss, certain countries have considered banning exports because they are becoming unavailable to treat people with serious medical conditions.

Portfolios ‘Overweight’ Weight-Loss Drugs

Weight-loss drugs are also becoming popular in the world of finance. Last month, Benzinga reported the launch of the first exchange traded fund to track the performance of weight loss drugs and their producers in the Tema Cardiovascular and Metabolics ETF (NASDAQ:HRTS). Since its launch two weeks ago, HRTS is up nearly 3%.

HRTS’s portfolio manager David Song told Benzinga ahead of the launch: “The breakthrough in obesity therapeutics leads us to believe that there could be significant growth given the large patient pool and currently low penetration rates.”

Tema believes that the treatment of obesity-related illnesses is already worth around $1 trillion a year. A market brimming with potential — and for companies like Roche and Pfizer, who are catching up, there’s still ample space for those entering late to thrive.

Now Read: Can Weight-Loss Drug Ozempic Tip The Scales For Tema’s New Healthcare ETF?

Photo: Shutterstock