Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks is “disappointed” that only one in 10 Americans are on GLP-1s.
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 to add the drugs to their normal routines.
“We 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 — not for a 100%— but for a big portion of obesity to arrest it completely,” Ricks said Friday at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC.
J.P. Morgan 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.
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 “probably driving $4 out of every $10 in health care in our country, so you can think about the savings possibility,” he said.
Part of the answer to further penetrating the market is GLP-1 drugs like Eli Lilly’s recently FDA-approved oral pill Foundayo, Ricks said.
Though studies have shown weight-loss pills come with certain side effects and in some cases less efficacy, they offer more convenience for people averse to needles or those who have moderate weight to lose. The pills are also cheaper to produce.
“Convenience matters in health care,” Ricks said. “A lot of health care is full of friction — friction financially — friction in terms of time consumption.”