Three quarters of Americans are overweight or obese. Only 5% will ever lose weight with diet and exercise. Are drugs the only real solution to the obesity epidemic?
David Friedberg recently dug into that and more in an interview with Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks.
GLP-1’s for Weight Loss
Lilly was one of the first companies to make a GLP-1 drug available for weight loss. These drugs, which were originally developed for diabetes, are also highly effective in treating obesity.
GLP-1’s, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, basically make your body think it’s full when it’s not. This means you eat less and lose weight.
People on GLP-1’s tend have less interest in overeating or fattening foods. A study by Wal-Mart found that shoppers on GLP-1’s bought food with 1/3 fewer calories, in particular reducing their consumption of salty snacks.
In my 20’s, I lost 70 pounds purely through diet and exercise. You can definitely lose weight without drugs.
But the reality is, most people just aren’t going to do that. For most, pharmaceuticals may be the only realistic option.
The Everything Drug?
GLP-1’s can help people lose weight. But there’s early evidence that they’re useful for other compulsions as well.
Animal studies suggest that the drugs could help people addicted to alcohol or opioids. The medicines seem to cause animals to lose interest in alcohol or opioids, much like humans became less interested in potato chips.
There’s even evidence in humans that patients on GLP-1’s are less likely to become depressed.
Given how many common conditions GLP-1’s can address, I expect to see half of Americans taking one within the next 10-20 years. Already, some insurers are changing their actuarial tables, expecting people to live longer as a result of these medications.
The Drugs of the Future
As incredible as GLP-1’s are, they come with some barriers. For now, they must be injected. And if you stop taking them, you will probably gain the weight back.
Lilly is working to fix these issues. They’re developing a pill version of a GLP-1. They’re also working on weight loss drugs that you’d only need to take for a limited time.
Ricks and his team are also working on another incredible project: a medication to lower Lp(a). Lp(a) is a biomarker that is closely associated with cardiovascular disease.
If a drug can lower your levels of Lp(a), your risk of death from cardiovascular disease could plummet.
This condition is the biggest killer in America. Preventing it could significantly increase life expectancy.
Wrap-Up
Eli Lilly was founded in 1876. It started out as a tiny little workshop. You wouldn’t know if they were making medicines or bicycles.
Today, it’s the largest pharmaceutical company on earth by market cap, worth over $800 billion. More importantly, Lilly is producing drugs that save countless lives.
Seeing that tiny little workshop, I’m put in mind of this quote from Jeff Bezos:
“Big things start small.”
What do you think of GLP-1’s?
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