Much of the world will take obesity drugs in 50 years, says Danish biotech firm

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

By Naomi Kresge

Obesity drugs will become so ubiquitous in the next 50 years that much of the world will be taking them, according to one industry executive.

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

Led by Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbound, the latest generation of obesity treatments are on track to generate global sales of $80 billion by 2030. They have triggered an industry frenzy and altered consumers’ behavior, 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 the 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 haven't seen the winning molecule yet,” he said in an interview Sunday in San Francisco before the start of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.

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, according to 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 1 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.

Zealand has been in contact with potential partners for its experimental drugs, he said, and the next data readouts 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 GmbH.