Anglerfish, Gila Monsters, and the Origin of Weight Loss Drugs

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The Motley Fool

Business, Investing

4.3 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Weight loss drug sales are estimated to hit $44 billion by 2030. Many of these treatments can thank previously obscure research on a carnivorous deep sea fish for their development. Rolfe Winkler is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal covering digital health. Ricky Mulvey caught up with Winkler to discuss: - The origins and science behind weight loss drugs. - The challenge of selling lizard venom research to pharmaceutical companies. - What decades-old research on anglerfish reveals about modern side effects for Ozempic. - And why it’s “not too hard” to keep dozens of Gila Monsters in your basement. “Monster Diet Drugs Like Ozempic Started With Actual Monsters”: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ozempic-mounjaro-gila-monster-anglerfish-8c9c1ff2 Companies mentioned: NVO, LLY Host: Ricky Mulvey Guest: Rolfe Winkler Engineers: Tim Sparks, Heather Horton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	He's basically telling all these pharmaceutical executives, hey, look at what I got here.
0:05.2	I got this peptide that actually has these great effects in diabetic mice for an extended
0:09.7	period of time.
0:10.8	You should license this.
0:12.1	And most of them said, no, what are you talking about?
0:14.8	It's a lizard venom.
0:16.3	I'm not going to check that in humans.
0:18.0	That sounds crazy.
0:19.5	I'm Mary Long, and that's Wall Street Journal reporter, Ralph Winkler, co-author of a story
0:26.7	titled Monster Diet Drugs Like Ozebpick, started with actual monsters.
0:31.5	The market possibility for these monster treatments have caught investors' attention.
0:35.3	It's one reason why the drug makers working on these products, like Eli Lilly and Nova
0:38.9	Nordisk, have outpaced the market's return by 20 percentage points over the past 12 months.
0:43.8	But overnight sensations can take decades to create.
0:47.1	And these blockbuster treatments trace back to previously obscure research on deep sea
0:51.3	fish and venomous lizards.
0:53.9	Ricky Mulvey caught up with Winkler to discuss the science behind weight loss drugs, what
0:57.8	the early research reveals about today's side effects, and what it's like to be bitten
1:02.6	by a yellow monster.
1:07.1	Weight loss drugs, including Ozebpick and Wigovie, started with angler fish and possibly venomous
1:12.1	lizards.
1:13.1	Ralph, I really enjoyed the story you wrote with Ben Cohen, and it didn't lighten me about
	...

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