May 18, 2025 — “Today, we salute you, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen,” writes Dave Knapp on his widely-read substack commentary. After a startling transition in leadership at Novo Nordisk, Jørgensen is now the outgoing CEO. Jørgensen is the CEO who guided the successful launch of Ozempic and Wegovy. He made the company into one of the most valuable in Europe. […]
May 12, 2025 — This is quite a day for the folks who have invested energy and others who have invested a great deal of money into developing tirzepatide for obesity. They took the risk of doing a head-to-head study of this drug against semaglutide and it clearly paid off. In the SURMOUNT-5 study, tirzepatide came out ahead on […]
May 7, 2025 — The word of the day in obesity is volatility. Minutes ago in Denmark, Novo Nordisk announced their first quarter business results and revealed a 13% drop in obesity drug sales, a reduction in their sales forecast, and yet the response in European stock markets was that the stock rose in value. In fact, it rose […]
May 1, 2025 — Late yesterday, the New England Journal of Medicine published interim results from a study that points to another breakthrough for semaglutide – this time for a MASH indication. The analysis includes 800 patients with MASH with an average BMI of 34.5. Only 22 patients in this trial had a BMI that indicated leanness. Nearly two […]
April 30, 2025 — Mass market compounding of semaglutide and tirzepatide is pretty much a thing of the past. As that chapter in the story of inadequate access to care closes, it seems that Novo Nordisk is ready to go all in with telehealth deals to make up some lost ground. Their press release spells it out: “Today, Novo […]
March 28, 2025 — Novo Nordisk went shopping this week and brought home a super-early-phase triple-G agonist for the low low price of $200 million in cash up front. On top of that, Novo will pay another $1.8 billion plus royalties if all goes well. That’s a tidy sum to pay for rights to a drug – UBT251 – […]
March 24, 2025 — There’s no denying it. More people are getting access to care for obesity than ever before. In part this is because health professionals have a range of tools for providing that care. GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide and tirzepatide are a big part of that.But those drugs carry a price tag that is blowing up pharmacy […]
March 11, 2025 — Drug development is tricky. If you want evidence for just how tricky it is, a quick look at the experience with CagriSema will give you a pretty good idea. Yesterday, Novo Nordisk announced topline results of this drug from their REDEFINE 2 clinical trial. Their press release talked about “superior results” for people with overweight […]
March 6, 2025 — Prices are moving quickly for people seeking obesity treatment with semaglutide and tirzepatide. Last week, Lilly offered another price cut for Zepbound. At the time, we noted inaction from Novo Nordisk on this front. But it barely took a week for this formerly unchallenged market leader to step up and respond with a huge price […]
February 26, 2025 — Just days after an FDA ruling that will force most compounders out of the market for obesity medicines, Eli Lilly announced yet another carefully calibrated price cut for its Zepbound brand of tirzepatide. These are direct-to-consumer prices for the product packaged in vials. Specifically, Lilly offered up two new, higher dose vials at a reduced […]
