GLP-1 Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Another surgical robotics CEO says GLP-1s could boost bariatric surgeries

Levita Magnetics founder, CEO and President Dr. Alberto Rodriguez-Navarro [Photo courtesy of Levita Magnetics]

The rise of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) weight loss drugs will likely increase demand for bariatric surgeries in the long run, according to Levita Magnetics founder, CEO and President Dr. Alberto Rodriguez-Navarro.

He’s the latest CEO of a surgical robotics developer to weigh in on how these novel drugs could affect demand for bariatric procedures and the wave of robotic systems being launched to perform them.

In an interview with Medical Design & Outsourcing, Rodriguez-Navarro says he views GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy in the same way as previous advances like intragastric balloons that were hailed as obesity solutions.

“Down the line, you stop using those treatments and the people regain the weight, because obesity’s a multifactorial, very complex diseas…

How Medtronic evaluates its exposure to GLP-1 drugs

Medtronic Chief Scientific, Medical and Regulatory Officer Dr. Laura Mauri drills into GLP-1 drug trial results to estimate their impact across the portfolio.

“We’ve done all the analysis” on GLP-1 drugs across Medtronic’s portfolio, said CEO and Chair Geoff Martha. [Photo courtesy of Medtronic]

The impact of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy on medtech manufacturing is one of the biggest uncertainties heading into 2024.

Industry leaders like Medtronic, Stryker and Intuitive have faced questions from investors about whether these weight loss drugs will reduce demand for certain medical devices and procedures.

Despite a portfolio spanning some of the fields that would seem likely to be affected — such as cardiovascular, diabetes, surgical and neurovascular — Medtronic Chair and CEO Geoff Martha recently said the drugs won’t impact his company’…

Medtronic weighs in on GLP-1 impact for device manufacturers

Medtronic CEO and Chair Geoff Martha [Photo courtesy of Medtronic]

Medtronic is the latest — and largest — device manufacturer to weigh in on GLP-1 weight loss drugs and how they could affect demand for medical devices.

Medtronic Chair and CEO Geoff Martha today said the world’s largest medical device company doesn’t expect GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy to take a big bite out of its business.

While Medtronic said the drugs have had a “modest impact” on the bariatric surgery market, Medtronic thinks that is only temporary. The rate of decline in Medtronic’s bariatric business has already stabilized, Martha said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call, adding, “I think we see that coming back in the coming year.”

“We feel strongly that we don’t see these drugs impacting Medtronic’s growth, medium …

An overview of the GLP-1 landscape in obesity therapeutics

[Feng Yu/Adobe Stock]

The GLP-1 drug market continues to boom lately thanks to highly effective new medications like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and continued demand for the drug class in diabetes. The runaway success of Wegovy and Ozempic (both formulations of semaglutide) has caused Novo Nordisk’s share price to skyrocket in 2023, briefly making the Danish pharmaceutical company the most valuable in Europe by market capitalization. Novo Nordisk’s growth has even exceeded Denmark’s entire economic output.

Far-ranging GLP-1 landscape projections

Given the massive potential of the obesity drug market, with projections ranging from Goldman Sachs’ $44 billion to Barclays’ $100 billion by 2030, Big Pharmas such as Novo Nordisk and Lilly are engaging in billion-dollar acquisitions of smaller biotechs with promising obesity pipelines.

At present, Novo Nordisk is having troubling ke…

Lilly’s tirzepatide wins FDA approval for type 2 diabetes

FDA has approved Mounjaro (tirzepatide), the first glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) for treating adults with type 2 diabetes.

Developed by Eli and Co., tirzepatide could quickly become a mega-blockbuster. According to Mizuho Securities, annual sales of the drug could approach $14 billion by 2030.

To win approval, Lilly provided data from the Phase 3 SURPASS clinical studies showing that it supported superior A1C reductions than all comparators, including insulin glargine and insulin degludec. The SURPASS trials also pitted tirzepatide against metformin, SGLT2 inhibitors and sulfonylureas.

The drug also has the side benefit of supporting weight loss, although it is not indicated for obesity. Volunteers in the SURPASS trials lost an average of 12 and 25 lb., depending on dose level.

In the SURMOUNT-1 study, the drug yielded up to 22.5% in adults with obesity or overweight.

Lilly will marke…

FDA approves Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide for weight management

FDA has approved Wegovy, the weekly semaglutide treatment for obesity from Novo Nordisk (CPH:NOVO-B).

The agency approved the use of semaglutide for type 2 diabetes in 2017. FDA approved an oral formulation for diabetes in 2019.

Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) receptor agonist (RA) that continues to find wider use.

In clinical trials, Novo Nordisk people led to an average weight loss of 15% to 18% of body weight over 68 weeks in patients with obesity without diabetes.

In a clinical trial published in JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine, semaglutide tripled weight loss for participants who received lifestyle management coaching.

Novo Nordisk continues to research new potential uses of the drug. It has launched clinical trials to test its use for conditions ranging from atherosclerosis to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. A posthoc analysis involving three cardiovascular clinical trials found that participants recei…