SaltWire's Atlantic regional weather forecast for October 26, 2023 | SaltWire - Healthcare companies who profit from treating obese and overweight patients are trying to convince investors that powerful new weight-loss drugs won't shrink their businesses.
However, those companies and analysts point to the high prices of the weight-loss drugs, uncertainty over long-term usage and the potential lack of insurance coverage for the costs as potentially limiting the market for them in the long run. By contrast, the iShares U.S. Medical Devices exchange-traded fund has lost more than 22% in the last three months.
Margaret Kaczor Andrew, a William Blair analyst covering medical technology companies, says she does not expect a meaningful effect on technologies like glucose monitors, which help manage diabetes. She pointed to the emergence of other drug classes like statins that had reduced cardiovascular disease but not decreased the need for heart devices.
Yet only about one-third of patients prescribed a weight-loss drug like Wegovy were still taking it a year later, Reuters reported in July, citing an analysis of pharmacy claims data.