 a year by the mid-2030s and both investors and companies are racing to get a piece of the action. Already, demand is surging. Eli Lilly this week became the most valuable healthcare company in the world after announcing a 70pc jump in sales of its own rival anti-obesity jab. Weight-loss jabs are 'likely to be the largest category of drugs for generations', says Andy Richards CBE, a veteran life sciences investor. Those who make, sell and invest in them are set for huge rewards. Britain risks being left behind in the great weight loss gold-rush, with AstraZeneca and GSK seemingly caught flat-footed by the boom. Ozempic, another treatment developed by Novo Nordisk, has already become a byword for this new market, rumoured to be used widely in Hollywood and admitted by Boris Johnson. Originally developed as a treatment for diabetes, its obesity-fighting potential was discovered as a lucrative side-effect.){kind=link}
A booming weight-loss drug market has investors scrambling for a piece of the action
After Copenhagen-headquartered Novo Nordisk published trial data this week suggesting its weight-loss jab Wegovy cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients by a fifth, something extraordinary happened.
Long the most valuable company in the country, a surge in Novo Nordisk’s share price saw its market value eclipse that of the whole Danish domestic economy. It is now on track to becoming Europe’s most valuable company.
The market mania reflects one of the biggest booms in the pharmaceutical sector for decades: anti-obesity jabs. These drugs are expected to be worth $100bn (£79bn) a year by the mid-2030s and both investors and companies are racing to get a piece of the action.
Already, demand is surging. Eli Lilly this week became the most valuable healthcare company in the world after announcing a 70pc jump in sales of its own rival anti-obesity jab.