GLP-1 RAs (Drug)

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    Novo Nordisk to Replace C.E.O. After Losing Edge in Weight-Loss Drugs

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    The Danish drugmaker, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, has seen its stock tumble as competition in the weight-loss drug market has grown fiercer.Novo Nordisk will replace its chief executive, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, the company announced Friday, citing a sharp decline in its stock price that stemmed from increased competition for its popular weight-loss drug.The Danish drugmaker said it was searching for a new chief executive to soon replace Mr. Jorgensen, who has led Novo Nordisk for eight years.The move reflects a remarkable fall in fortune for the maker of one of the most well-known drugs in the world, which is sold as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for obesity. The company’s stock has fallen by 50 percent in the past year.

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    Novo Nordisk’s share price
    Source: FactSetBy The New York TimesSales of that drug created boom times for Novo Nordisk. In 2023, the company’s extraordinary success prompted the Danish central bank to keep interest rates lower than it otherwise would. For more than a year, Novo Nordisk’s market value surpassed Denmark’s entire gross domestic product.But investors have soured on the company as it has faced increasingly fierce competition. Lower-cost copycat versions of the weight-loss drugs made through a process known as compounding have cut into Novo Nordisk’s sales. Even more damaging has been competition from Eli Lilly, the maker of the drug sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound.Novo Nordisk had a head start, winning approval to market its drug for obesity more than two years before Eli Lilly. But Novo Nordisk has been rapidly losing market share to its competitor: American patients have filled more prescriptions this year for Zepbound than for Wegovy, and the gap has been widening, according to the industry data provider IQVIA.Eli Lilly is also developing new weight-loss drugs, including a daily pill, that are expected to set up years of blockbuster sales for the company. Novo Nordisk has a hazier path forward. More

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      Why Patients Are Being Forced to Switch to a 2nd-Choice Obesity Drug

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      CVS Caremark decided to stop offering Zepbound in favor of Wegovy for weight loss. It’s the latest example of limits imposed by insurance that disrupt treatments for patients.Tens of thousands of Americans will soon be forced by their health insurance to switch from one popular obesity drug to another that produces less weight loss.It is the latest example of the consequences of secret deals between drugmakers and middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, that are hired by employers to oversee prescription coverage for Americans. Employers pay lower drug prices but their workers are blocked from getting competing treatments, a type of insurance denial that has grown much more common in the past decade.One of the largest benefit managers, CVS Health’s Caremark, made the decision to exclude Zepbound in spite of research that found that it resulted in more weight loss than Wegovy, which will continue to be covered.Those research findings, first announced in December, were confirmed in an article published on Sunday in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved a large clinical trial comparing the drugs that was funded by Eli Lilly, the maker of Zepbound. Earlier research not financed by Eli Lilly reached similar conclusions.Ellen Davis, 63, of Huntington, Mass., is one of the patients affected by Caremark’s decision. “It feels like the rug is getting pulled out from under my feet,” she said.After taking Zepbound for a year, she has lost 85 pounds and her health has improved, she said. She retired after working for 34 years at Verizon, which hired Caremark for her drug coverage.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Patients Cut Off From Cheaper Obesity Drugs as FDA Halts Sales of Copycats

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      Hundreds of thousands of Americans stand to soon lose their access to cheaper weight-loss drugs, with a federal crackdown on copycat versions threatening to disrupt treatment and raise costs.The Food and Drug Administration has ordered producers and sellers of the less expensive products to wind down operations in the coming weeks now that it has declared there are no longer shortages of the blockbuster drugs Wegovy and Zepbound.Produced through a process of mixing drug ingredients known as compounding, the copycat medications had spawned a booming multi-billion-dollar industry. Patients turned to compounding because their health insurance would not pay for the brand-name drugs and they could buy the compounded versions for less than $200 a month in some cases.Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk now offer the brand-name drugs for $500 a month in most cases to patients who pay with their own money instead of going through insurance. Until recently, patients sometimes had to pay over $1,300 a month.The F.D.A. ordered compounding for versions of Eli Lilly’s Zepbound to end last month. Small compounders have until April 22 to stop making and selling versions of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy; large compounders have until May 22.It is not clear how the F.D.A. will enforce these deadlines. The Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the F.D.A., declined to answer questions for this article.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Much Should Weight Loss Drugs Like Wegovy and Zepbound Cost?

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      A new study found that fair prices for medications like Wegovy and Zepbound would be hundreds less per month than they are now.It’s easy to make a medical case for blockbuster weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, which have been shown to prevent heart attacks and strokes and save lives.But for the employers and government programs being asked to pay for the medications, the financial case for them is less clear. Are the drugs’ benefits worth their enormous cost?The answer right now is no, according to a new study published on Friday in the journal JAMA Health Forum, by researchers at the University of Chicago.To be considered cost effective by a common measure used by health economists, the price of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy would need to be cut by over 80 percent, to $127 per month, the researchers concluded. And Eli Lilly’s Zepbound would be cost effective only if its price fell by nearly a third, to $361 per month. (Zepbound warranted a higher price, the researchers said, because it produced greater benefits in clinical trials.)“There’s no doubt that the drugs are demonstrating tremendous health benefits,” said David Kim, a health economist at the University of Chicago and the senior author of the study, which was funded by government grants. “The problem is the price is too high.”There’s widespread hope that the drugs will effectively pay for themselves in the long run, by making patients healthier and preventing expensive medical bills. It’s not clear yet whether that will turn out to be true.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The New York Times Presents: ‘Weight of the World’ on Ozempic’s Rise

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      ‘Weight of the World’Producer/Director Esther Dere and Nicole RittenmeyerCo-Producer Leah VarjacquesProducer/Reporter Dani BlumProducer Rachel AbramsWatch our new documentary on FX and Hulu starting Friday, Nov. 22, at 10 p.m. Eastern.The ascent of GLP-1 medications, such as Ozempic, has brought about a transformation within the weight-loss industry and beyond, reshaping societal views on health and body image. Originally developed to manage diabetes, these drugs have become associated with rapid weight reduction, capturing public interest thanks to rumored endorsements from high-profile figures like Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk.“Weight of the World” dives into this pivotal moment, following the journeys of three individuals as they navigate the complexities of using GLP-1 medications. The film examines their experiences against the backdrop of over 40 years of diet culture in America, prompting an inquiry into whether these medications represent a groundbreaking shift or merely another chapter in the long and complicated narrative of weight loss.Through expert commentary from medical professionals, dietitians and cultural critics, the film looks at this evolving landscape, and it investigates the societal obsession with thinness and the implications of these new pharmaceutical interventions, raising questions about body image, health and the ongoing struggle against obesity.Left Right Productions/The New York Times/Hulu Originals/FX Networks”GLP-1s are a blockbuster because they promise to solve a social problem without changing anything else.”Tressie McMillan Cottom, Times Opinion columnistLeft Right Productions/The New York Times/Hulu Originals/FX Networks“Thinking about weight is probably the No. 1 item that’s on my mind most of the time. Like, I’m always comparing myself to everyone around me.”Jeffrey Luxmore, a subject featured in the filmSupervising Producer Liz HodesDirector Of Photography Victor Tadashi SuarezVideo Editor Geoff O’Brien“The New York Times Presents” is a series of documentaries representing the unparalleled journalism and insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time. More