Obesity kings’ buffet is slimmer than it looks

Obesity kings’ plump future is under siege. Over the past month Roche and Pfizer have splurged over $10 billion scooping up promising treatments and other rivals are rapidly developing their own medicines. Incumbents $242 billion Novo Nordisk and $722 billion Eli Lilly may reckon their head start will protect them from competition, but a wave of better and cheaper treatments could undermine their cosy duopoly. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly dominate the weight-loss market. The Danish group’s Ozempic was released in 2018 for diabetes but is also widely used to tackle obesity, and was followed three years later with Wegovy, which is approved specifically for overweight patients. Eli Lilly followed close behind with Mounjaro and Zepbound. These medications are part...