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[ad_1] Life expectancy in the U.S. is between three and five years lower than the average in other high-income countries — and the gap comes in part from misinformation, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said. "It's looking worse, not better, over the last several years," Califf told CNBC in an interview Thursday at the agency's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. It's not just the Covid pandemic contributing to the decline, he said, pointing out the gap with peer nations is widening. Califf said a new factor has joined the list of known causes of life-expectancy disparities like race, ethnicity, income and education: living in a rural area, where he noted that people are exposed to different information sources. "Why aren't we using medical products as effectively and efficiently as our peer countries? A lot of it has to do with choices that people make because of the things that influenced their thinking," Calif...

[ad_1] The launch of Eli Lilly 's weight-loss drug Zepbound — a key pillar of our investment thesis in the pharmaceuticals giant — is going swimmingly in the U.S., Jefferies said Friday. Weekly Zepbound prescriptions totaled 7,700 in the week ended Dec. 8, its fourth on the U.S. market, according to Jefferies, which cited data compiled by health-care analytics firm IQVIA. That is more than Novo Nordisk 's Wegovy — currently the most popular obesity drug in the country — had in its fourth week after being approved in 2021, Jefferies concluded. "Zepbound has shown strong launch momentum in the weeks following its first prescription recorded," the analysts wrote in a research note. That's an encouraging finding for investors, given it will be more than a month before Eli Lilly reports earnings with formal revenue contributions from its much-hyped obesity drug. The Club holding typically reports fourth-quarter results in late January or early February. To be sure...

[ad_1] Most analysts predict the market for new weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro will be enormous, but estimates vary for its exact size depending on who you ask. On Monday, Citi raised its estimate for incretin drug sales to $71 billion by 2035, up from its prior estimate of $55 billion. That viewpoint seems really conservative when placed side by side with predictions like Guggenheim's. Last month, the firm made a case for there being a $150 billion to $200 billion opportunity for these drugs. Guggenheim analyst Seamus Fernandez's conviction comes from his belief that GLP-1-based incretins will become the most prescribed drugs ever by or before 2031. Not only do these drugs work well for managing insulin levels and helping patients lose weight, studies are underway to show their benefits for cardiovascular health, sleep apnea and chronic kidney disease to name a few. Fernandez expects $50 billion in GLP-1 sales will come from patients with diabetes as increti...

[ad_1] Aykut Karahan | Istock | Getty Images Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share  this link  with them to sign up. Good afternoon! Several drugmakers are hurrying to capitalize on one of the next major innovations coming to the booming weight loss drug market: effective, convenient and potentially affordable obesity pills.  Most of the weight loss and diabetes drugs available now are weekly injections, such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro. They are among medications called GLP-1 agonists, which have skyrocketed in popularity over the last year.  Now these rivals and other drugmakers such as Pfizer are hoping to develop oral weight loss and diabetes drugs that are more convenient for patients to take and easier to manufacture at scale. That development may help alleviate the supply shortages plaguing the existing injectable treatments in the U.S. Pills are also typically cheaper than injections, b...

[ad_1] Hopes are sky-high for Eli Lilly's recently launched weight loss drug Zepbound. Investors will be tuning into the company's fourth quarter earnings call on Feb. 6, eager to hear more about how that rollout is going. One key statistic will be the number of commercial health insurers providing coverage of the drug, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 8. Lilly also is expected to reveal its outlook for 2024 for the first time. Zepbound, a once-a-week injection, has only been available in pharmacies since early December, but the average analyst expects that the drug's sales reached $75 million in the fourth quarter, according to StreetAccount. More importantly, by the end of 2024, analysts expect sales to ramp up to $3.79 billion, then more than double to $7.83 billion by 2025. Those estimates have been creeping higher heading into Eli Lilly's report, and analysts see the potential for further upside when Lilly provides its outlook. ...

[ad_1] Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen on Friday said the company's experimental weight loss pill , amycretin, could eventually become a best-in-class treatment for obesity.  The Danish drugmaker is racing to capitalize on the runaway success of its blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy by developing a new generation of treatments for obesity, including more convenient and potentially cheaper pills.  His remarks came one day after Novo Nordisk impressed investors with early-stage trial data on amycretin. Patients on the pill lost about 13.1% of their weight after 12 weeks, Jørgensen said on CNBC's "Money Movers."  That surpasses the 6% weight loss seen in those who took Wegovy after the same time period. It also adds to the growing enthusiasm around the potential of weight loss pills.  Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk, speaks during an interview in New York on Aug. 10, 2022. Christopher Goodney | Bloomberg | Getty Images Along with conv...

[ad_1] A pharmacist displays boxes of Ozempic, a semaglutide injection drug used for treating type 2 diabetes made by Novo Nordisk, at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, U.S. March 29, 2023.  George Frey | Reuters Drugmakers aren't the only ones feeling the impact of the weight loss industry gold rush.  Retailers with pharmacy businesses, such as Walmart , Kroger and Rite Aid , said increased demand for prescription weight loss drugs helped boost sales for the second quarter.  But analysts note that those blockbuster treatments are minimally profitable for retail pharmacies – and may even come with margin headwinds. "More recently, you're starting to hear retailers talk about these drugs. But I wouldn't say they're necessarily beneficiaries of the increased popularity," Arun Sundaram, an analyst at CFRA Research, told CNBC. "They're really not making much of a profit on the drugs. So it's really just a traffic driver and not really a p...

[ad_1] Eli Lilly has had a great run, but UBS expects about 16% further upside in the coming months as a steady stream of positive news propels the stock higher and revenue growth accelerates. Calling it the "best fundamental story" among U.S. large caps, UBS analyst Colin Bristow on Friday lifted his price target to $612 from $526. The stock has already gained 47% year to date, mostly on the back of lofty expectations for weight-loss drug sales. LLY YTD mountain Eli Lilly shares are up about 47% year to date. Bristow said the valuation is warranted due to Eli Lilly's expected five-year top-line compound annual growth rate of 18%, which is an outlier in the sector. A stocked pipeline By the end of this year, U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals are expected for Mounjaro as an obesity treatment and for donanemab for Alzheimer's disease, Bristow said. While both of those drugs have received a lot of positive attention, Eli Lilly has other products in the pip...

[ad_1] Eli Lilly and Company, Pharmaceutical company headquarters in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain. Cristina Arias | Cover | Getty Images Eli Lilly on Friday said it will acquire Versanis, a privately held obesity drug maker , for up to $1.93 billion to boost the pharmaceutical giant's weight loss treatment portfolio.  Eli Lilly agreed to pay Versanis shareholders in cash, which will consist of an upfront payment and potentially subsequent payments if Versanis achieves certain "development and sales milestones." Oakland, California-based Versanis, which was founded in 2021 by biotech investment firm Aditum Bio, has one experimental drug for obesity and potentially other conditions. Eli Lilly's stock price rose 3% on Friday following the announcement. The deal is Eli Lilly's latest attempt to capitalize on the weight loss industry gold rush, which began last year after Novo Nordisk' s blockbuster injections Wegovy and Ozempic boomed in popularity.  An est...

[ad_1] An Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical manufacturing plant is pictured in Branchburg, New Jersey, March 5, 2021. Mike Segar | Reuters Uninsured Americans pay nearly $98 on average for a vial of Eli Lilly 's generic insulin, even after the company pledged to cut the product's list price to $25 per vial , according to a report released Thursday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren . Eli Lilly earlier this year vowed to slash the list price of its generic insulin, Lispro , from $82.42 per vial starting May 1. The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company is one of the world's largest insulin manufacturers. The Massachusetts senator's report surveyed more than 300 chain and independent pharmacies in the U.S. between June 9 and June 28 to determine whether Eli Lilly's announced price cut "translated into real relief for patients." The survey found that a third of pharmacies charged uninsured patients $164 or more for a vial of Eli Lilly's Lispro. Seven p...

[ad_1] In this photo illustration, boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter in Los Angeles, April 17, 2023. Mario Tama | Getty Images The European Union's drug regulator on Tuesday said it has broadened an investigation into the risk of suicidal thoughts and self-injury among patients taking Novo Nordisk 's Ozempic, Wegovy and Saxenda drugs to include other weight loss and diabetes medications.  The European Medicines Agency didn't specify which additional drugs are now included in the investigation. But it could potentially include Eli Lilly 's diabetes drug Mounjaro, which is approved in the EU . Other companies such as Pfizer and Amgen are developing similar products.  The EMA said it is now evaluating about 150 reports of possible cases of self-injury and suicidal thoughts in patients taking weight loss and diabetes drugs. It's still unclear if the medicines caused the events or whether they are linked to patients' underlying ...

[ad_1] A selection of injector pens for the Wegovy weight loss drug are shown in this photo illustration in Chicago, Illinois, March 31, 2023. Jim Vondruska | Reuters Only around one-third of patients prescribed weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk 's blockbuster injection Wegovy continued to take it a year later — but total health-care costs for the entire group soared, according to an analysis shared with CNBC on Tuesday. The annual health-care cost for patients before they started a weight loss medication was $12,371 on average, said the analysis from Prime Therapeutics , one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S.  That cost of care jumped by nearly 60% to $19,657 on average after patients started treatment, the analysis said. And a group of patients in the analysis who didn't take a weight loss drug saw their health-care costs decrease by 4% on average during the same time period.  The analysis reviewed U.S. pharmacy and medical claims data for more...