Could weight loss drugs be the next statins?

If ChatGPT and Bard dominated the technology headlines this year, Mounjaro, Wegowy and Ozempic did it for the pharmaceutical industry. What else can give greater credibility and PR than Elon Musk endorsing Ozempic and Wegowy on X (pun). These weight loss drugs originally prescribed for Type 2 Diabetes, have now started getting approvals for weight reduction in obesity. While insulin is the hormone that comes to the mind when one thinks of obesity and diabetes, weight loss drugs suppress hunger and appetite by acting through another group of hormones called Incretins. These drugs are effective appetite suppressants.

Lifestyle diseases range from obesity to diabetes, fatty liver disease to obstructive sleep apnea and hypertension to polycystic ovarian disease. These conditions more frequently appear together as a cluster called Metabolic syndrome (MetS), rather than in isolation. Globally, over a billion people live with MetS today. A central component in the treatment of all these conditions is weight reduction, losing 5-10 per cent of one’s weight will dramatically reduce or even reverse these diseases. Weight loss drugs claim to reduce weight up to 15-20 per cent, a phenomenal feat when compared to other methods people resort to. Aggressive dieting, intermittent fasting, high intensity interval training and even bariatric surgeries are few, but all of them come with their risks and efforts. However anti-obesity drugs have their own share of warnings and adverse effects such as thyroid cancer and inflammation of the pancreas. Their long-term efficacy and safety are yet to be proven.

Another group of drugs in use for decades playing a similar multipurpose elixir role are the cholesterol reducing agents called statins. They are the highest prescribed drugs in the US and are also approved for metabolic diseases. Weight loss drugs could be a serious challenger for statins as they play a similar role and even act at an earlier point in the metabolic syndrome conundrum.

The ripple effects of the arrival of these drugs are felt within and far beyond the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. Eli lily and Novo Nordisk are the major pharmaceutical giants producing all the existent drugs while Pfizer is conducting trials. Eli lily trumped Johnson and Johnson to become the largest pharma company by market cap recently. Novo Nordisk, Europe’s most valuable company is the leader in Denmark’s pharma industry, which alone boosted the county’s GDP by 5 per cent this year. Morgan Stanley had projected that 7 per cent of the American population could be on weight loss drugs by 2035. Airlines are cheering as they would save a lot of fuel while food manufacturers are worried about people being less hungry.

Weight Watchers, a 5-decade old New York headquartered company traditionally emphasising behavioural change, calorie reduction, diet watching, and exercise, has now acquired Sequence, a startup which essentially is a telehealth company prescribing these weight loss drugs. The craze, trend and demand are real. While it may be an early and a wild extrapolation, anti-obesity drugs could well be on their path to find a place in the geriatric cocktail of medicines.

Dr Vinod Prabhu is Specialist Pediatrician at Aster clinic, Al Nahda Dubai

• Opinion