Stop Hoarding Our Weight-Loss Drugs

Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is making a plea to some of its customers: stop hoarding our weight loss drugs. In a new Oscar-themed commercial set to run on TV this weekend, the drugmaker is not-so-subtly telling people to stay away from its new blockbuster medications if they’re only looking to lose a few pounds. These and similar drugs have continuously experienced shortages since their debut in recent years, with demand far outstripping supply.

The 30-second reverse advertisement, dubbed “Big Night,” is already available to watch online. Though it doesn’t namecheck any specific medications, it’s clearly referencing Eli Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound and type 2 diabetes drug Mounjaro, both made with the same active ingredient tirzepatide.

“Some people have been using medicine never meant for them. For the smaller dress or tux. For a big night. For vanity,” the commercial’s voiceover begins, set against a background of someone laying out a red carpet-worthy dress. The scene then transitions to a woman on public transit as the voiceover concludes: “But that’s not the point. People whose health is affected by obesity are the reason we work on these medications. It matters who gets them.”

And if that message isn’t obvious enough, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks added his own stamp, telling CNN Thursday: “These medicines were invented for people with a serious health condition; they were not invented just to have someone who’s famous look a little bit better.”

Tirzepatide is the latest iteration of a class of drugs known as incretins, which mimic hormones important to regulating our hunger and metabolism. The drug follows Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, which was first approved in 2017 for type 2 diabetes under the name Ozempic and in 2021 for obesity as the medication Wegovy.

Though both semaglutide and tirzepatidehave proven to be much more effective at helping people lose weight than diet and exercise alone or older drugs, tirzepatide appears to be the superior treatment of the two. In clinical trials, people taking tirzepatide have lost an average 20% or more of their baseline weight, compared to the average 15% weight loss seen with high dose semaglutide. While semaglutide only mimics the hormone GLP-1, tirzepatide mimics both GLP-1 and the hormone GIP.

The explosion in popularity of semaglutide and tirzepatide, coupled with production problems, have led to constant shortages of Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro over the years (Zepbound was only approved last November). While it’s not clear just how much of these shortages can be attributed to their popularity with celebrities, it is known that doctors are regularly prescribing the diabetes-related brands of these drugs as an off-label weight loss treatment. This in turn has likely affected the care of some people taking Ozempic and Mounjaro as intended, with diabetes patients being switched to other, possibly less effective drugs.

The lack of supply, high list prices (around $1,000 a month without coverage), and routine lack of insurance coverage of these drugs has also led to the emergence of a gray and black market. People are now buying custom-made and much cheaper semaglutide and tirzepatide from compounding pharmacies, though with no guarantee of their safety or effectiveness. Others are buying counterfeit versions of these drugs, some of which have been falsely labeled products that actually contain insulin and have sent people to the hospital with an overdose as a result.

While celebrities may be an easy target to blame for these shortages, it’s worth noting that the potential customer base of these medications is far larger than Hollywood. About 42% of American adults are thought to have obesity, or around 100 million people. And as popular as these drugs have been, only a small percentage of Americans have taken them to date according to one analysis. 

There are other incretin-based drugs in development and expected to reach the public in a matter of years. And both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have reportedly taken recent steps to increase supply moving forward, though that promise has been being made in one form or another for several years running.

Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is making a plea to some of its customers: stop hoarding our weight loss drugs. In a new Oscar-themed commercial set to run on TV this weekend, the drugmaker is not-so-subtly telling people to stay away from its new blockbuster medications if they’re only looking to lose a few pounds. These and similar drugs have continuously experienced shortages since their debut in recent years, with demand far outstripping supply.

The 30-second reverse advertisement, dubbed “Big Night,” is already available to watch online. Though it doesn’t namecheck any specific medications, it’s clearly referencing Eli Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound and type 2 diabetes drug Mounjaro, both made with the same active ingredient tirzepatide.

“Some people have been using medicine never meant for them. For the smaller dress or tux. For a big night. For vanity,” the commercial’s voiceover begins, set against a background of someone laying out a red carpet-worthy dress. The scene then transitions to a woman on public transit as the voiceover concludes: “But that’s not the point. People whose health is affected by obesity are the reason we work on these medications. It matters who gets them.”

And if that message isn’t obvious enough, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks added his own stamp, telling CNN Thursday: “These medicines were invented for people with a serious health condition; they were not invented just to have someone who’s famous look a little bit better.”

Tirzepatide is the latest iteration of a class of drugs known as incretins, which mimic hormones important to regulating our hunger and metabolism. The drug follows Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, which was first approved in 2017 for type 2 diabetes under the name Ozempic and in 2021 for obesity as the medication Wegovy.

Though both semaglutide and tirzepatidehave proven to be much more effective at helping people lose weight than diet and exercise alone or older drugs, tirzepatide appears to be the superior treatment of the two. In clinical trials, people taking tirzepatide have lost an average 20% or more of their baseline weight, compared to the average 15% weight loss seen with high dose semaglutide. While semaglutide only mimics the hormone GLP-1, tirzepatide mimics both GLP-1 and the hormone GIP.

The explosion in popularity of semaglutide and tirzepatide, coupled with production problems, have led to constant shortages of Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro over the years (Zepbound was only approved last November). While it’s not clear just how much of these shortages can be attributed to their popularity with celebrities, it is known that doctors are regularly prescribing the diabetes-related brands of these drugs as an off-label weight loss treatment. This in turn has likely affected the care of some people taking Ozempic and Mounjaro as intended, with diabetes patients being switched to other, possibly less effective drugs.

The lack of supply, high list prices (around $1,000 a month without coverage), and routine lack of insurance coverage of these drugs has also led to the emergence of a gray and black market. People are now buying custom-made and much cheaper semaglutide and tirzepatide from compounding pharmacies, though with no guarantee of their safety or effectiveness. Others are buying counterfeit versions of these drugs, some of which have been falsely labeled products that actually contain insulin and have sent people to the hospital with an overdose as a result.

While celebrities may be an easy target to blame for these shortages, it’s worth noting that the potential customer base of these medications is far larger than Hollywood. About 42% of American adults are thought to have obesity, or around 100 million people. And as popular as these drugs have been, only a small percentage of Americans have taken them to date according to one analysis. 

There are other incretin-based drugs in development and expected to reach the public in a matter of years. And both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have reportedly taken recent steps to increase supply moving forward, though that promise has been being made in one form or another for several years running.