OBESITY drugs will become so ubiquitous in the next 50 years that much of the world will be taking them, an industry executive has said. 

Adam Steensberg, the chief executive of Zealand Pharma, a Danish biotech that is developing new weight-loss therapies, said “a very large proportion of the population” will embrace the medicines.

Led by Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co’s Zepbound, the latest generation of obesity treatments are on track to generate global sales of US$80 billion by 2030. They have triggered an industry frenzy and altered consumers’ behaviour, with ripple effects from retailers to insurers.

Based just a few miles from Novo in the suburbs of Copenhagen, Zealand is among the drugmakers challenging those industry leaders. 

Steensberg said new medicines may ultimately overtake Wegovy and Zepbound on issues such as safety – which could help people stay on treatment for longer – and preserving a patient’s muscle mass.

“We have not seen the winning molecule yet,” he said in an interview on Sunday (Jan 7) in San Francisco, ahead of the start of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Zealand is awaiting a raft of data from clinical trials in the next six months. Most important are the results from an early-stage study of an experimental drug that targets obesity via amylin, a hormone released by the pancreas together with insulin, said Steensberg. 

Unlike GLP-1 medicines such as Wegovy and Zepbound, which suppress the appetite, an amylin-based compound could potentially help people feel satiated for longer after eating – a distinction that Steensberg said could allow patients to enjoy their meals more. Researchers also expect to see fewer side effects such as nausea and vomiting, he said.

“If that study confirms the observations we have had in the shorter-term phase one studies, then I am a happy CEO,” Steensberg said.

Optimism about the weight-loss market has pushed Zealand’s shares up more than 75 per cent in the past 12 months.

The company has been in contact with potential partners for its experimental drugs, he said, and the next data read-outs will be key for those talks. The company’s most advanced programme in obesity and NASH, a severe type of fatty liver disease, is already partnered with German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim. BLOOMBERG