New weight-loss medicine is very popular

Patients are flocking to the first new obesity medicine to reach the market in years, boosting returns for drugmaker Novo Nordisk.

In a field starved for options, demand is exceeding supply for Wegovy, a weekly injection that dampens patients’ appetite and helps them to lose about 15% of their body weight. The Danish drugmaker’s obesity-drug revenue surged by an unprecedented 41% last quarter.

The pandemic might have played a role in motivating people to lose weight amid evidence that carrying extra pounds can worsen the outcome for COVID-19 sufferers, Chief Executive Officer Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said Wednesday. But the drug is also the first slimming prescription medicine to gain clearance for seven years in the U.S., where a majority of adults are overweight and struggle to either shed pounds or keep them off.

“Demand is strong,” Fruergaard Jorgensen said on a conference call Wednesday. “It’s of course unfortunate that we can’t help all patients.” The company is working through supply constraints to produce and package as much of the medicine as possible, he said, and the imbalance should resolve early next year.

Novo, best-known for its diabetes treatments, is pivoting to treat the global obesity epidemic.

The world will have an estimated 1 billion people considered obese by 2025, raising the risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and driving healthcare costs higher. In the U.S., the number of states where more than a third of adults are obese has nearly doubled since 2018.