{"id":518547,"date":"2026-06-25T23:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/518547\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:34:10","slug":"ozempic-sat-unused-for-decades-because-invention-is-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/518547\/","title":{"rendered":"Ozempic Sat Unused for Decades Because Invention Is Not Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Led by Ozempic and Wegovy, glucagon-like peptides (GLP-1s) have become a global phenomenon, with one in eight US adults<\/a> currently taking one. Those two branded compounds, both made by Novo Nordisk, emerged from attempts to develop a diabetes drug. It effectively lowers blood glucose, slows gastric emptying, and reduces hunger, leading many patients to experience profound weight loss. In a world plagued by increasing obesity<\/a>, the drugs\u2019 utility extends far beyond diabetes treatment. So why did the formula sit untouched for 30 years after it was licensed?<\/p>\n

Ozempic is a story of pharmacological success, but also of entrepreneurial failure. The tale provides a strong reminder that inventions and discoveries mean little unless they are combined with sound entrepreneurial judgment.<\/p>\n

According to a paper published<\/a> in the Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, a startup produced a GLP compound in the late 1980s, and pharma giant Pfizer sponsored human trials that confirmed the drug\u2019s efficacy in reducing blood glucose levels and slowing gastric emptying. One member of the startup team, Jeffrey Flier of Harvard, explained what happened<\/a> next:<\/p>\n

I was shocked when told that senior Pfizer leadership had concluded that there would never be another injectable therapy for diabetes other than insulin. What led them to this conclusion was never explained\u2026.I had been deeply impressed by their rapid decision to invest in our company, and I was equally dumbfounded by their decision to end their investment despite convincing early evidence of the program\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Confident in its own conclusions, Pfizer pulled the plug on the drug in 1991. The startup folded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under the terms of Pfizer\u2019s agreement, the license remained with the Boston<\/a> hospital where researchers discovered GLP-1\u2019s mechanism and conducted the human trials. It was then acquired<\/a> by Novo Nordisk in 1992, where scientists used it<\/a> to develop what eventually became semaglutide<\/a>, the pharmaceutical sold as Ozempic and Wegovy. While it is unclear whether, as Max Marchione put it on Twitter, the GLP-1 agonist data simply \u201csat in a filing cabinet for 30+ years,\u201d Pfizer\u2019s decision to abandon the project likely delayed its development. <\/p>\n

While it is unclear whether, as Max Marchione put it on Twitter, the GLP-1 agonist data simply \u201csat in a filing cabinet for 30+ years,\u201d Pfizer\u2019s decision to abandon the project certainly delayed its development. Had the company continued investing in the research, it might have brought the drug to patients years earlier\u2014and captured a significant share of what has become a $190 billion<\/a> market.<\/p>\n

Clearly, mistakes were made in the development of Ozempic, but what\u2019s notable is that the product\u2019s success required far more than the idea. Even a great idea is not a product and may never become one \u2014 much less a successful one. Business history is filled with cases<\/a> in which inventors appear to have been deprived<\/a> of the rewards of their discoveries. Many great inventions were, in some sense, stolen ideas<\/a> commercialized by someone other than their inventors. George Westinghouse bought patents<\/a> from Nikola Tesla, and undertook illuminating the nation<\/a> while Tesla, the lone genius, struggled with poverty. Elias Howe invented the sewing machine<\/a> but lost most of the revenue to Isaac Singer, who was only later compelled to pay the inventor royalties. Antonio Meucci invented the telephone<\/a> but couldn\u2019t afford to secure or defend patents from Alexander Graham Bell\u2019s enthusiastic dissemination<\/a> of the device.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inventors frequently failed to recognize the full market potential of their ideas. Entrepreneurial outsiders notice the discovery, develop it into a desirable technology or product, and implement strategies for manufacturing, distributing, and marketing the invention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some unethical behavior<\/a>, fraud<\/a>, exploitation<\/a>, and outright stealing<\/a> certainly does exist in these stories<\/a>. But it would be a mistake to reduce this entrepreneurial instinct to taking advantage of or free-riding on a mistreated genius who would otherwise have realized the great benefit, himself. In a very real sense (as GLP-1 development demonstrates), what actualizes the value of an idea is the execution: operationalizing a discovery into a product or service that people find valuable. The idea has relatively little value, compared to the scalable solution<\/a> built upon it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We typically do not learn about it much in school, but there is such a thing as second-mover advantage<\/a>. This phenomenon<\/a> (that the first mover is not profitable but the second mover is) is often explained in terms of avoiding the costly mistakes<\/a> that the first mover makes. But cost is not the true story. Second movers recognize \u2014 imagine \u2014 a new idea\u2019s utility to some market segment. Like Novo Nordisk and George Westinghouse, they strive to make the implementation of the idea as valuable as possible, positioning it as valuable to potential customers. The creation may be every bit as valuable as the idea, and often more so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Henry Ford, for another historical example, was not the inventor of the automobile, but the innovator of the affordable car. Existing manufacturers of automobiles did not recognize the potential appeal of their horseless vehicles. Henry Ford did \u2014 and made it happen. Far from the first mover<\/a>, or even the second mover, he was the first to recognize what a mass market of ordinary people<\/a> wanted from a car. The other producers did not. Ford transformed a toy for the wealthy<\/a> into practical transport for the ordinary.<\/p>\n

The same type of story can be told about many successful innovations. The invention (the new thing) might have limited value, until its utility is captured, marketed, and made available to people. Entrepreneurs and investors look for the value proposition in new ventures: what would make buyers want this new thing? They ask not \u201cis this a new thing?\u201d but \u201cis this new thing generating value someone is willing to pay for?\u201d The questions may have the same answer but often do not.<\/p>\n

The story of Ozempic is one of failed entrepreneurship, but also of its eventual success. Pfizer, judging from how the story has been told, did not recognize the value of the drug. Viewing GLP-1s as a treatment for diabetes, and nothing else, Pfizer execs failed to imagine how other consumers might value these clinical effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps they were right \u2014 from the perspective of treating diabetes, another injectable may not be necessary. But they were wrong regarding the value of the drug, which arises from a different use by a different market segment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Ozempic craze<\/a> of today is not driven by diabetics seeking to manage their disease, which Pfizer viewed as its only potential application. Millions of non-diabetics now choose the compound for other reasons. Pfizer completely missed that value proposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Led by Ozempic and Wegovy, glucagon-like peptides (GLP-1s) have become a global phenomenon, with one in eight US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[72,191,61,60],"class_list":["post-518547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}