THESE MEDS JUST KEEP COMING: FDA authorizes use of diabetes drug tirzepatide for weight loss.

HMM: Tirzepatide improves body composition across a range of adult age groups, study shows.

A WEIGHTY ECONOMICS PUZZLE: “Yesterday a new study was released showing that patients on Eli Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatidere) lost weight but regained a meaningful percentage after being switched to placebo. Eli Lilly stock ‘tumbled’ on the news, e.g. here and here or see below. In other words, Eli Lilly stock fell when investors learned that to keep the weight off patients would have to continue to take Zepbound for life. Hmmm…that certainly violates what the man in the street thinks about pharmaceutical companies and profits. Chris Rock, for example, says the money isn’t in the cure, the money’s in the comeback. If so, shouldn’t this have been great news for Eli Lilly? So why did Eli Lilly stock fall?”

CHANGE: Ozempic Is About to Be Old News: A “huge explosion” in obesity drugs is on the horizon. “The next generation of drugs is reaching for more. The first leap forward is Mounjaro, known generically as tirzepatide, a diabetes drug from Eli Lilly that the FDA is expected to approve for weight loss this year. In one study, it led to 20 percent or more weight loss in up to 57 percent of people who took the highest dose; The Wall Street Journal recently called it the ‘King Kong’ of weight-loss drugs. People on Mounjaro tend to lose more weight more quickly and generally have a ‘better experience’ than those on Wegovy, Keith Tapper, a biotech analyst at BMO Capital Markets, told me.”

If weight loss becomes easy, will slimness be less prized?