In 12 years there are estimating the economic impact of obesity will be at 3% of the global GDP and 51% of the population will be either overweight (BMI 25 to 30) or obese (BMI over 30).
Economic impact of overweight and obesity to surpass $4 trillion by 2035 | World Obesity Federation
The health care cost issue with obesity is mostly/entirely because of metabolic co-morbidities including high blood pressure, heart diseases, stroke, type 2 diabetes, NAFLD/NASH… all related to central obesity/abdominal fat. In the last PR THTX talked about the significant effect of Tesamorelin on central obesity by reducing excess visceral abdominal fat which is “an important component of central obesity contributes to obesity-related disorders”.
Current approved drugs for obesity in the US are orlistat (oral), phentermine-topiramate and naltrexone-bupropion mixture of two medicines, liraglutide and semaglutide injectable. All of them are covered by insurance if the patient has one or two of those co-morbidities and the annual cost is in the range of 15 to 20 plus k. Many have some serious side effects and have drug-drug interactions. In order for Tesamorelin a safe drug with known dosage to be considered/developed as a contender to these drugs obviously the pricing of it has to be adjusted, we know it has healthy margins at low volumes which only will be improving significantly when it’s targeted market is much larger as cost of goods sold including manufacturing, logistics, storage etc. (variable expenses) will be decreasing with higher volumes. There was an article recently discussing future pricing for a to be approved NASH drug with anticipated pricing at $19 k annually for MDGL’s drug which Intercept’s much more expensive drug has to compete with. Point is this is the same concept high volume low margin but much bigger market which will be the case for Tesamorelin if and when approved for NASH or even obesity. So the pricing isn’t an issue, the science has been evolving, improving the drug’s therapeutic profile for very large and lucrative potential markets. Again the much more metabolic active visceral fat is the issue which is behind the co-morbidities. Just a reminder Dr. Grinspoon completed in December 2017 a phase 2 clinical trial “Effectiveness of Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone in Reducing Abdominal Fat in People Who Are Obese” which among others showed a significant reduction of visceral adipose tissue volume by Tesamorelin.
History of Changes for Study: NCT00675506