THIRTEEN new Ozempic-like drugs are coming in the next few years as part of ... trends now
NovoNordisk is testing the compound CagriSema, which is made up of semaglutide and cagrilintide
Drugmakers are capitalizing on the success of groundbreaking obesity drugs with plans to release an additional 13 treatments in the coming years.
Starting this year, the number of new obesity drugs hitting the market will start ticking up, hitting a projected peak in 2027 with four new launches that year alone.
Pharma giant Novo Nordisk, the company behind Wegovy and Ozempic, expects to launch six products in the next five years.
Leading the pack of new drugs will be CagriSema, a combination of the key ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic with another drug, cagrilinitide.
Novo’s main competitor, Eli Lilly, maker of Mounjaro and Zepbound, and a smattering of other companies are expected to follow suit to meet staggering demand driven by record high obesity rates in the US.
The graph shows that in 2022, more than 5 million prescriptions for obesity drugs were written for weight loss compared with just over 230,000 in 2019. A more recent analysis showed more than nine million prescriptions for Wegovy and other injectable drugs used for weight loss were doled out in the last three months of 2022
The weight loss drug market is expanding rapidly, with a projected value of $100 billion by 2030.
Jasper Morley, a GlobalData pharma analyst, said: ‘Recent blockbuster launches have showcased the viability of obesity drugs.
'In accordance with the increasing patient population, it is highly likely that a number of companies manufacturing these later entrants will receive great returns for their efforts.'
Expected to hit the market in 2025, Novo’s CagriSema alone will likely garner $7.4 billion in sales by 2029.
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