Weight-Loss Drugs: Booster Shots for the Market

Tere­sa O’Connor has rea­son to hope. A 36-year-old nurse from Edmon­ton, Alber­ta, Cana­da, she had been bat­tling with her weight for years. O’Connor — a real indi­vid­ual whose name we have changed for pri­va­cy rea­sons — worked out at a fit­ness stu­dio almost every day and was a reg­u­lar jog­ger and walk­er. But the excess pounds stub­born­ly refused to go, and blood tests were show­ing ini­tial signs of dia­betes. Her doc­tor pro­ceed­ed to pre­scribe Ozem­pic, a dia­betes drug that is also used to lose weight. Suc­cess was evi­dent after just a few shots. O’Connor’s blood sugar returned to healthy lev­els and she was final­ly able to slim down.

O’Connor’s story is just one of many. Hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple around the world are turn­ing to a group of drugs known as GLP‑1 analogs in order to shed unwant­ed pounds. In the USA, where the per­cent­age of over­weight and obese indi­vid­u­als is espe­cial­ly high, one in eight adults is report­ed to have received a pre­scrip­tion despite the fact that the drugs have only recent­ly become avail­able. The results are aston­ish­ing: for the first time in decades, the country’s obe­si­ty rate is going down instead of up.

The active agent mim­ics the body’s own GLP‑1 hor­mone and binds to its recep­tors. That stim­u­lates the pro­duc­tion of insulin, which sta­bi­lizes blood sugar lev­els. The gas­tric emp­ty­ing process slows down, and the sen­sa­tion of hunger declines. More­over, arti­fi­cial­ly pro­duced GLP‑1 breaks down very slow­ly, and there­fore has a longer and more inten­sive effect than its nat­ur­al coun­ter­part. Around one bil­lion peo­ple are esti­mat­ed to be liv­ing with obe­si­ty. And stud­ies show that those who stop tak­ing Ozem­pic or sim­i­lar GLP‑1 prepa­ra­tions quick­ly regain the weight they lost. As a result, many physi­cians have come to view GLP‑1 analogs as a life­long course of treatment.

Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies with GLP‑1 analogs in their port­fo­lios are see­ing a rise in sales. Their value on the stock mar­ket is ris­ing as well. One exam­ple is Novo Nordisk a lead­ing glob­al drug pro­duc­er head­quar­tered in Den­mark, which is now the most valu­able com­pa­ny in Europe. In 2017, it began pro­duc­ing Ozem­pic for dia­bet­ics. In 2021, it brought a high­er dose of the same active ingre­di­ent, semaglu­tide, onto the mar­ket as a weight-loss med­ica­tion called Wegovy. In the US, the Eli Lilly com­pa­ny makes GLP‑1 analogs under the Moun­jaro and Zep­bound brand names. Numer­ous other phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have joined the action. Boehringer Ingel­heim and Pfiz­er are two more firms invest­ing in the devel­op­ment of GLP‑1 medications.

“Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals are just one of the sec­tors affect­ed by this boom,” says Lochan Kongera, a con­sul­tant in retail and con­sumer goods at the Porsche Con­sult­ing man­age­ment con­sul­tan­cy. The food indus­try, too, will be adapt­ing to a new group of con­sumers. After all, peo­ple who take GLP‑1 med­ica­tions usu­al­ly change their buy­ing pat­terns at super­mar­kets. Accord­ing to sur­veys, GLP‑1 users not only con­sume 20 to 35 per­cent fewer calo­ries than before but are also turn­ing to dif­fer­ent food prod­ucts. They are more apt to leave snacks, chips, soft drinks, and candy on the shelves while opt­ing instead for fruit, veg­eta­bles, and high-pro­tein items. The Wal­mart retail cor­po­ra­tion, whose in-house phar­ma­cies pro­vide Ozem­pic and sim­i­lar med­ica­tions, has the cus­tomer data to back this up. When its CEO addressed the topic in an inter­view, far-rang­ing reper­cus­sions includ­ed drops in the share prices of Coca-Cola and Pep­si­Co. Mar­ket ana­lysts feared that the Ozem­pic boom might lead to a decrease in sales of sug­ary drinks.

“Man­u­fac­tur­ers need to rethink their approach in order to prof­it from this new tar­get group,” observes Kongera. That could mean devel­op­ing their own prod­ucts or expand­ing their port­fo­lios by means of strate­gic acqui­si­tions. Some large cor­po­ra­tions have already bought up small­er com­pa­nies in order to improve their access to weight- and health-con­scious con­sumers. Mars acquired Kevin’s Nat­ur­al Foods, a maker of ready-made meals and sauces. And Nestlé now has a major share of Yfood, a start-up from the south­ern Ger­man city of Munich with very suc­cess­ful sales of pro­tein and fiber-rich meal sub­sti­tutes in the form of bars, pow­ders, and shakes. One effect of the weight-loss drugs is a loss of mus­cle mass, which could be off­set by a high­er intake of pro­tein. “Com­pa­nies that were already mak­ing spe­cif­ic sup­ple­ments or high-pro­tein prod­ucts well before the Ozem­pic hype are enjoy­ing a head start,” explains Joey Wil­son, an expert in the Life Sci­ences divi­sion at Porsche Consulting.

Euro­pean food mak­ers such as Danone and Dr. Oetk­er, for exam­ple, have a long and strong track record in high-pro­tein yogurts, pud­dings, and cold cof­fee drinks. Ads for these prod­ucts have thus far not specif­i­cal­ly men­tioned the weight-loss shots, but that might change. “A shift in mar­ket­ing could help tar­get this new inter­est group,” says Wil­son. In May 2024, the Swiss-based glob­al Nestlé cor­po­ra­tion launched a new brand pre­cise­ly for con­sumers tak­ing GLP‑1 analogs for weight-loss rea­sons. The Vital Pur­suit line’s frozen, por­tion-aligned meals fea­ture high­er lev­els of pro­tein, fiber, and essen­tial nutrients.

Because GLP‑1 analogs dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduce the sen­sa­tion of hunger, users are at risk of not get­ting all the nutri­ents they require. “Peo­ple are eat­ing less, but they’re not auto­mat­i­cal­ly eat­ing what their bod­ies need,” notes Wil­son. “This will open the mar­ket for new prod­ucts like sup­ple­ments or nutraceu­ti­cals that can com­pen­sate for vit­a­min and nutri­ent defi­cien­cies,” he pre­dicts. Nestlé described its cus­tomers’ inter­ests in a press release as fol­lows: “Peo­ple who are man­ag­ing their weight may place a sharp­er focus on por­tion con­trol and nutri­ent bal­ance in their eat­ing choic­es while still seek­ing great taste and acces­si­bil­i­ty.” The Vital Pur­suit prod­uct line is ini­tial­ly only avail­able in the US, but that might soon change.

The weight-loss trail­blaz­ers at Weight­Watch­ers have also devel­oped a new pro­gram. And Daily Harvest’s recent meal kits con­tains ingre­di­ents specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored to the nutri­tion­al needs of GLP‑1 users. GNC, an Amer­i­can retail chain spe­cial­iz­ing in vit­a­mins and nutri­tion­al sup­ple­ments, adver­tis­es direct­ly to users of weight-loss drugs on its web­site. And Nestlé has start­ed a sup­port plat­form called GLP-1Nu­tri­tion, which also tar­gets pre­cise­ly this con­sumer group.

Like most drugs, GLP‑1 analogs have side effects. In addi­tion to the risk of los­ing mus­cle mass and the dan­ger of nutri­ent defi­cien­cies, there are reports of nau­sea, diar­rhea, and other gas­troin­testi­nal issues. “Med­ica­tions designed to alle­vi­ate these unde­sired effects might there­fore also ben­e­fit from the boom,” says Wil­son. The indus­try has real­ized that its new tar­get group is more like­ly to grow than shrink over time. And com­pe­ti­tion for these new con­sumers has in fact only begun. “Right now the mar­ket is wide open for new prod­ucts that focus on health,” says Kongera. “It remains to be seen who will come out ahead.”