Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks is \u201cdisappointed\u201d that only one in 10 Americans are on GLP-1s.<\/p>\n
The company, which is rolling out weight-loss pills designed to make the drugs more accessible to a larger part of the population, wants more people who are eligible for GLP-1s to add them to their normal routines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at that as disappointing on the one hand because our job is to get medicines to patients, and now we have for the first time a way to \u2014 not for a 100%\u2014 but for a big portion of obesity to arrest it completely,\u201d Ricks said Friday at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n
J.P. Morgan<\/a> estimates that about 25 million Americans will be on a GLP-1 drug by 2030, up from around 10 million in 2025 and 6 million in 2024.<\/p>\n Obesity drugs are driving up insurance costs for both government-run and private health plans. But in the long run, Ricks said they will help the US save significantly on health care spending. Obesity is \u201cprobably driving $4 out of every $10 in health care in our country, so you can think about the savings possibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Part of the answer to further penetrating the market is GLP-1 drugs like Eli Lilly\u2019s recently FDA-approved oral pill Foundayo<\/a>, Ricks said.<\/p>\n