Nova Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound have been a huge success as weight loss drugs which target glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) receptors. Why is there a need to find oral replacement for these injectables? And how does the pill form perform in terms of potency and effect?
From business perspective, pill replacement is cheaper in terms of manufacture and distribution. Tablet format is more accessible and acceptable to most of the people. These two contributes to the necessity to find the oral replacement for these highly valuable injectables.
It raises another question: does the tablet format have the same effect as the injectables? Researchers have conducted experiment to answer this question with Orforglipron, the once-daily oral weight loss medication. The result shows that with 272 participants, a weight loss of at least 10% occurred in 75% participants who received the medication, compared with 9% of those who received placebo. Clinical results also show that injectable ones are around 15% to over 20% within the similar time frame.
Therefore, it is not necessary that the oral replacement will outperform the injectables.