Abbott Laboratories

NYSE:ABTUnited States

Jun 18, 2024

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• DJ Correction to New Weight-Loss Drugs and Devices Are Coming This Week -- Barrons.com, from 3:51PM ET on Tuesday Jun 18, 2024 by Dow Jones

  3:51PM ET on Tuesday Jun 18, 2024 by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: LLY, NVO, ALT, ABT
  Bill Alpert The weight-loss breakthroughs now dominating headlines all emerged from diabetes treatment. So medical meetings such as the coming weekend's gathering of the American Diabetes Association are increasingly dominated by news on obesity drugs from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Zealand Pharma, Altimmune, and others. There will be news on the effectiveness of weight-loss pills, drugs that target novel hunger-receptors, and drugs that designed to trim weight but not muscle. Devices are also following drugs on the path from diabetes treatment to dieting data, so investors are expecting that Abbott Laboratories or Dexcom glucose monitors will be used by non-diabetics. These drugs and devices have been the biggest movers of medical stocks in the last couple of years. Lilly and Novo became the world's highest-valued drug companies, after the weight-shedding effects of their GLP-1 drugs lifted their stocks more than 160% in the last two years. Dexcom, for its part, has been one of the most active stocks in medical technology. Lilly currently markets tirzepatide for diabetes, as Mounjaro, and for weight-loss, as Zepbound. The injectable drug targets two cell-surface receptors that affect hunger. Talks at the conference will show how the drug acts on appetite circuits in the brain and eases sleep apnea. The conference will hear about mid-stage studies of a Lilly pill that targets one hunger receptor, and an injectable drug retatrutide that targets three hunger receptors at once. Lilly and Novo charge more than $10,000 a year for their drugs, so insurers have tried to limit coverage to the those in immediate need. To build a case for broader coverage, the drugmakers are testing the drugs' affects on many diseases that range from the heart, to the liver, kidney, and brain. So Novo's presentations will detail Phase 3 study results for its semaglutide -- marketed as Ozempic, for diabetes, and Wegovy, for weight-loss -- on kidney disease and heart failure. There will be updates on its dual-receptor drug CagiSema, too. Other companies in fast pursuit of the weight-loss market. Several talks will discuss new data on Altimmune's dual-receptor drug. Denmark's Zealand has presentations on an early-phase drug it hopes will cut weight with only mild side effects. Regeneron will present Phase 1 data on a drug that might cut weight, but not muscle mass. This summer, Abbott Labs will launch a patch-shaped device called Lingo, a glucose monitor recently approved for marketing to anyone interested in how diet and exercise impact blood sugar levels. That includes overweight folks considered "prediabetic," as well as fitness fans. An Abbott investor event at conference Saturday could include details about the product, writes Raymond James analyst Jayson Bedford, as well as another new Abbott monitoring patch for Type-2 diabetics who don't need insulin. DexCom will meet with investors Sunday, and Bedford will look for news on Stelo, a glucose-monitoring patch that will go on sale over-the-counter in August. In March, Stelo became the first U.S.-approved device for use by anyone not on insulin, including non-diabetics interested in their metabolic health. There will be a head-to-head contest between DexCom and Abbott to see how many non-diabetics will pay out-of-pocket for continuous glucose monitoring -- not to mention the 30 million Type-2 diabetics for whom insurance coverage of glucose monitoring is patchy. While DexCom's patch is approved for use by anyone over 18, the company will initially target Type-2 diabetics. But it's interesting to see a presentation scheduled for a DexCom study of its glucose monitor's health benefits for people considered prediabetic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are 100 million such people, in the U.S. Write to Bill Alpert at william.alpert@barrons.com This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. Corrections & Amplifications The Stelo continuous glucose monitor from DexCom was the first such device approved by the FDA for use by anyone over 18 who doesn't use insulin, including those without diabetes. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that the Lingo device from Abbott Laboratories got the first approval. (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 18, 2024 15:51 ET (19:51 GMT)