This Wednesday, an American pharmaceutical giant that is one of the two magic drugs for weight loss$Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US)$The optimistic test results of ZepBound, its GLP-1 diet drug, were announced once again — ZepBound is not only suitable for obesity and diabetes, but also has the potential to improve sleep apnea symptoms.
Zepbound is expected to improve symptoms in obstructive sleep apnea patients by 63%
According to a statement issued by the company on Wednesday, Zepbound can reduce the number of times people with obstructive sleep apnea due to obesity slow or stop breathing by up to 63% from the baseline level in its “anti-OSA (SURMOUNT-OSA)” phase III trial, exceeding the 50% drop expected by investment banks Jeffrey and Morgan Stanley.
Experiments have shown that after taking tirpotide (Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in the diet pills Zepbound and Mounjaro), the symptoms of patients with obstructive sleep apnea improved by 55%, while those receiving placebo improved their symptoms by 5%; and if the drug is used in combination with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment device, it can improve patients' symptoms by 62.8%.
Additionally, patients who participated in the 52-week drug trial lost about 20% of their body weight.
Eli Lilly plans to share the full trial results at the American Diabetes Association conference in June and will submit these data to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other global regulators in the middle of this year to seek approval for Zepbound to treat sleep apnea.
If approved, Zepbound will help more patients get weight-loss treatments through insurance. Currently, health insurance plans such as the US Medicare do not cover weight loss drugs such as Zepbound.
Eli Lilly moving towards a trillion-dollar market capitalization?
According to a study published in The Lancet in 2019, around 1 billion people worldwide are affected by sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea usually need a ventilator or implant to keep the airways open. These devices are quite expensive, and the cost of a single piece of equipment ranges from hundreds to thousands of dollars. According to GoodRx, the average cost of annual maintenance, service, and replacement parts ranges between $330 and $900.
According to an analysis firm Airfinity, weight loss can help relieve sleep apnea, which affects more than 23 million obese adults in the US. With extensive insurance coverage, Zepbound could prevent up to 5.6 million cases of sleep-breathing disorders by 2030.
Airfinity also believes that if Zepbound is approved to treat sleep apnea, this will also affect respiratory device manufacturers such as ResMed and Inspire Medical Systems. According to Airfinity's analysis, weight loss drugs could shrink the respiratory equipment market by more than 11% in the next few years.
Morgan Stanley believes that the optimistic test results of titerpotide for sleep apnea are expected to have a “spillover effect” outside the field of weight loss, promote health insurance coverage, and continue to broaden the moat.
Shams Afzal, portfolio manager at Carnegie Investment Counsel, also believes that from treating heart failure to sleep apnea, Eli Lilly's weight loss treatments are expected to open up new markets, which may drive Eli Lilly's trillion-dollar journey:
Eli Lilly has truly become a unicorn in the biopharmaceutical sector, and the future will reach 1 trillion dollars.
As of press release, Eli Lilly's US stock rose nearly 3% in the premarket.
Editor/Jeffrey