Drug Discovery and Development

An overview of the GLP-1 landscape in obesity therapeutics

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definition of obesity

[Feng Yu/Adobe Stock]

The GLP-1 drug market continues to boom lately thanks to highly effective new medications like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and continued demand for the drug class in diabetes. The runaway success of Wegovy and Ozempic (both formulations of semaglutide) has caused Novo Nordisk’s share price to skyrocket in 2023, briefly making the Danish pharmaceutical company the most valuable in Europe by market capitalization. Novo Nordisk’s growth has even exceeded Denmark’s entire economic output.

Far-ranging GLP-1 landscape projections

Given the massive potential of the obesity drug market, with projections ranging from Goldman Sachs’ $44 billion to Barclays’ $100 billion by 2030, Big Pharmas such as Novo Nordisk and Lilly are engaging in billion-dollar acquisitions of smaller biotechs with promising obesity pipelines.

At present, Novo Nordisk is having troubling keeping up with the surging appetite for Wegovy. Supply shortages, expected to continue into 2024, could allow rivals to seize market share with their own drugs targeting similar mechanisms of action.

While Novo Nordisk and Lilly are the most prominent players, they are not alone. As the table shows, the GLP-1 landscape covers an growing range of players.

An overview of key players in the market

Drug/Brand Developer Indication Notes
Semaglutide/Wegovy Novo Nordisk Obesity/Overweight and Type 2 Diabetes Approved for the treatment of adults with obesity or overweight and for type 2 diabetes
Liraglutide/Saxenda Novo Nordisk Obesity Daily injectable for obesity. Approved for obesity in late 2014. Approved for pediatric obesity in July 2020.
GSBR-1290 Structure Therapeutics Obesity (under study) Oral GLP1 agonist.
VK2735/Viking Therapeutics Viking Therapeutics Obesity (under study) In 2022, Viking initiated a phase 1 study of its GLP-1/GIP dual agonist in healthy volunteers.
Orforglipron Eli Lilly Obesity (under study) Positive Phase 2 results published, showing significant weight loss compared to placebo.
Retatrutide Eli Lilly Obesity (under study) Phase 2 results published in NEJM in October 2022. The triple incretin drug showed 22% placebo-adjusted weight loss.
AMG133 Amgen Obesity (under study) In the phase 1 clinical study, the novel dual agonist demonstrated weight loss and improved glucose homeostasis. AMG133 is. a GLP-1 agonist fused to a GIPr antagonist.
GL0034 (utreglutide)/Utreglutide Sun Pharma Treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity The novel GLP-1 receptor agonist was the focus of a phase 1 in which it reduced body weight by 6.8%.
danuglipron Pfizer Adults with Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus A phase 2b study is underway in obesity patients.
Filed Under: Metabolic disease/endicrinology
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About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

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