What's the hottest trend in the pharmaceutical industry right now?
You could make a strong argument that it's the expansion of so-called GLP-1 medications. These miracle drugs effectively promote weight loss (in addition to treating diabetes), but there's growing evidence that they can also tame cravings for alcohol and narcotics, and even mitigate behaviors like sex addiction and gambling.
Right now, the major manufacturers of GLP-1 drugs are Novo Nordisk (NVO +0.00%), which makes Wegovy, and Eli Lilly (LLY 0.19%), which manufactures Zepbound. These are already blockbuster drugs, and they're bound to get even bigger. Demand for and sales of the weight loss drugs are only expected to accelerate, and the size of the anti-obesity drug market is forecast to hit $100 billion within five years.
Image source: Getty Images.
A third major player
But a third major pharma player is emerging in the GLP-1 space.
That would be Pfizer (PFE 0.22%), which is now getting into the weight loss market. In September, it announced that it would acquire Metsera, a next-generation, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that's developing several obesity treatments. The price of the acquisition is $4.9 billion.
NYSE: PFE
Key Data Points
One of Metsera's drug candidates, MET-233i, can be taken less frequently than the Novo Nordisk and Lilly drugs, and has proven highly effective -- it helped patients in one study to lose 8.4% of their body weight in 36 days.
These weight loss drugs are big, and rapidly getting bigger. An investment in Pfizer today could pay off in a major way as this trend continues.