🚨 A Cascade of GLP-1 News!

Catch Up Quick!

Original posted at obesity.news/ on Nov 19, 2025

Hey, it’s Ann again On The Pen employee 001 and Dave’s sister. Yesterday on the podcast, he emphasized something he kept calling a “once-in-my-lifetime” moment: the fact that these GLP-1–based obesity and metabolic medications, still fully under patent are getting cheaper at the same time the science behind them is exploding. We’ve never seen this happen in modern medicine, and Dave sees it as a major turning point for millions of people who’ve been excluded from effective treatment.

A Wave of Scientific Progress and Lower Costs

Dave described what feels like an avalanche of data showing that GLP-1 drugs don’t just help with weight loss, they reduce mortality, lower inflammation, protect metabolic and cardiac pathways, and may truly extend human lifespan. And now, at the exact same time, prices are falling and access through Medicare and Medicaid is about to expand dramatically. From his vantage point, this is unprecedented.

He framed yesterday’s episode around that theme: every new headline: acquisitions, trials, pricing changes, side-effect breakthroughs—points toward the same story: hope for people who have never been offered meaningful treatment before.

Key Industry Moves: Quality of Weight Loss Takes Center Stage

Dave highlighted several major developments in drug companies fighting for better therapies:

AstraZeneca acquired Six Peaks Bio, a Swiss startup focused on fat loss with muscle preservation, a top priority for older adults and anyone on GLP-1 medications.

This new class of drugs works on the same activin pathway that Eli Lilly is exploring with its own muscle-preserving candidate, bimagrumab.

Multiple major players: AstraZeneca, Amgen, Innovent/Boehringer Ingelheim, and Pfizer—are now in the race.

Dave believes that soon the conversation won’t be whether a drug can help people reach a healthier BMI, but which combination of drugs will best preserve muscle, target visceral fat, and minimize side effects.

Breakthrough: A New Way to Reduce GLP-1 Nausea

A drug from Vanda Pharmaceuticals, tradipitant, cut vomiting in new GLP-1 users from 59% down to 29%.

Combined nausea + vomiting fell by half as well.

It’s not a new drug; it was rejected by the FDA in 2024 for a different condition (gastroparesis) but the early results suggest it may dramatically improve adherence for beginners who often quit because of side effects.

Wegovy Pricing Drops: A Major Shift

This was one of the biggest news items of the day:

Novo Nordisk has officially lowered cash prices:

$199/month for the two starter doses (introductory offer for new patients to Wegovy)$350/month for all higher Wegovy doses

Zepbound’s cash pay price will move to $450/month, tentatively slated for the beginning of 2026, meaning Wegovy is now undercutting Lilly by about $100.

Contrary to Novo’s claims, Dave believes this is less about “helping patients get off compounds,” but moreso because they’ve been losing massive market share to Lilly. He suspects a genuine price war could be coming, especially with Novo’s higher-dose 7.2 mg Wegovy expected soon.

Medicare Changes: A True “Miracle” Moment

As some of you know, Iast April I traveled to DC with Dave to assist him by capturing some of the important moments for the OTP community. You can see some of the footage and read about the work he did here. It’s been through experiences like this that I’ve started to understand how hard Dave and this community have fought for broader access, so hearing him describe this as a miracle wasn’t surprising:

Starting in May, up to 30 million Americans on Medicare may gain access to GLP-1s for a $50 copay, or free for millions more under Medicaid.

This only became possible because of policy decisions spanning both the Biden and Trump administrations.

Dave stressed how rare it is to see life-extending, patent-protected drugs become less expensive instead of more expensive.

Colon Cancer Survival Breakthrough

One of the most astonishing studies Dave covered today:

A UC San Diego trial of 6,800 colon cancer patients showed:

GLP-1 users had a 15.5% mortality rate at 5 yearsNon-users had 37.1% mortality

And this held true even after adjusting for BMI, severity, and age.

Researchers believe this may be due to the drugs’ glucose-regulating, metabolic, and anti-inflammatory effects and early lab data showing slowed tumor growth. They are calling for accelerated clinical trials.

Dave knows firsthand what chronic disease does to quality of life and believes this class of medicines may turn out to be one of the most important discoveries of our lifetime.

On the Journey Together

A huge thank you to the OTP community for making On The Pen one of the top medical podcasts in the world and reminding everyone that tens of millions of new patients will soon need guidance about these medications.

In Dave’s words, and I agree, this moment in medicine is nothing short of historic and we’re full of excitement and hope for the future of obesity care and the health of our friends, our family, and anyone who needs these medicines.

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