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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
2 Weight Loss Drug Stocks That Are Screaming Buys in June
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have most of the GLP-1 drug market to themselves. Based on current pipelines, this state of affairs could continue. Both stocks are attractively priced at the moment. 10 stocks we like better than Novo Nordisk › Is there a hotter trend in healthcare than weight loss drugs? Probably not. Research from Morgan Stanley suggests that sales of weight loss drugs will soar from an estimated $15 billion last year to as much as $150 billion by 2035. That would be a tenfold increase in just over a decade. Most current medications for weight loss are GLP-1 agonists, which suppress patients' appetites by slowing digestion and making them feel full. Two companies, Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), currently dominate this area, together accounting for an estimated 97% of the market share. Can they can stay atop this fast-growing industry? Here's what I found -- and why they could both be screaming buys right now in June 2025. Whenever an opportunity exhibits such rapid growth, it will inevitably attract competition. Indeed, numerous companies are currently developing weight loss drugs. However, it's quite a leap to assume that Novo Nordisk, with 62% of the GLP-1 market, and Eli Lilly with another 35%, will easily cede their market share to new products. First and foremost, drug development is a challenging process that undergoes rigorous regulatory testing. Many of the drugs in development today will ultimately fail to reach the market. In April, industry heavyweight Pfizer abandoned development of its oral weight loss drug danuglipron, after it may have caused a liver injury in a patient during a clinical trial. Weight loss drugs that do make it to market must then actually compete with what patients already use. That boils down to more than price: Efficacy, side effects, and prescribers' comfort levels with products all make a difference in how these treatments ultimately sell. The weight loss opportunity is currently in its early innings. The leading drugs -- Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound -- are injected, require refrigeration, and remain expensive for patients. Upcoming drugs will include more convenient oral pills; some could be cheaper to produce, and thus could be sold at lower prices. Naturally, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have remained active in order to stay atop the market. Novo Nordisk could soon have an oral GLP-1 agonist for sale; it has filed an application for approval of an oral version of Wegovy. The company hopes to receive a nod by the end of this year. Additionally, its candidate CagriSema, a potential successor to Wegovy, is working through phase 3 trials. At this rate, CagriSema could arrive sometime next year. Eli Lilly is also very active. Its experimental oral weight loss drug, orforglipron, has performed well in phase 3 studies. It could be the first small-molecule drug to hit the market; small-molecule drugs are easier and cheaper to manufacture. Its next-generation injectable therapy, retatrutide, is innovative in that it targets three separate hormones related to hunger. Retatrutide is also currently in phase 3 studies, and could arrive in 2027 if all goes well. Boehringer Ingelheim's survodutide, an injected therapy that could arrive in 2027, is arguably the only potential near-term competition worth noting. There aren't any other immediate threats to Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly's dominance. The next hopeful, MariTide from Amgen, only begins phase 3 studies in March; if approved, its estimated market arrival would be in 2028. Barring something unexpected, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly appear well positioned to capture much of that explosive growth in the weight loss market over the coming years. The question is, which industry giant will do better? Wall Street is currently placing its money on Eli Lilly, as evidenced by the stock's significant valuation premium. Shares trade at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 62, versus just 22 for Novo Nordisk. Novo Nordisk's CagriSema has struggled to outperform existing treatments in clinical trials, while Eli Lilly's orforglipron has performed well. However, how patients choose treatments involves several factors, so it's not a sure thing that Eli Lilly will capture all this market share from Novo Nordisk. The best solution? Own both. One way to value them is by their PEG ratios, which weigh the stocks' valuations against the companies' expected growth rates: Novo Nordisk PEG ratio: 1.5 Eli Lilly PEG ratio: 1.9 Both companies are reasonably priced for their expected long-term earnings growth, currently 14% annualized for Novo Nordisk and 32% annualized for Eli Lilly. Of course, that could play out differently, but it's all the more reason to own both stocks. One way or another, these two companies will likely split the upside in the weight loss drug market. Before you buy stock in Novo Nordisk, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Novo Nordisk wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 173% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amgen and Pfizer. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 2 Weight Loss Drug Stocks That Are Screaming Buys in June was originally published by The Motley Fool


Globe and Mail
14-04-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Is Pfizer Stock (PFE) Worth Buying After Its Weight Loss Pill Failure?
Pfizer (PFE) stock was up on Monday despite the pharmaceutical company ending the clinical trial of its once-daily GLP-1 weight loss pill, danuglipron. The company had to cut this trial off early after one patient suffered liver damage. This is believed to have been caused by danuglipron, as the issue subsided once the person stopped taking the weight loss drug. Stay Ahead of the Market: Discover outperforming stocks and invest smarter with Top Smart Score Stocks. Filter, analyze, and streamline your search for investment opportunities using Tipranks' Stock Screener. That's a major blow to Pfizer as the company hoped to enter the GLP-1 weight loss race with danuglipron. It hoped the pill would compete against other weight loss drugs, such as Novo Nordisk's (NVO) Wegovy and Eli Lilly's (LLY) Zepbound. Danuglipron could have offered a significant advantage over those two drugs as they require weekly injections compared to Pfizer's once-daily pill plan. This marks the second time that danuglipron has failed Pfizer. The first time was when it discontinued a trial of patients taking the pill twice a day. It did so due to a high number of patient withdrawals over negative side effects, such as vomiting and nausea. What's Next for Pfizer? Pfizer has given up on the development of danuglipron after this latest failure. The company said it would no longer continue to research the molecule. Instead, PFE intends to continue research and development of its other weight loss drug candidates. Despite today's failed clinical trial news, PFE stock was up 1.12% on Monday morning. Even so, the shares are still down 15.11% year-to-date. Is PFE Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold? Turning to Wall Street, the analysts' consensus rating for Pfizer is Moderate Buy, based on four Buy and 10 Hold ratings. With that comes an average price target of $28.67, representing a potential 29.64% upside for PFE stock. These ratings and price targets may change as analysts reevaluate Pfizer after its clinical trial failure.


Bloomberg
14-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Stock Movers: Apple & Goldman Sachs Rise, Pfizer Falls on Obesity Pill Pullback.
Goldman Sachs (GS): Goldman Sachs shares jumped 3.4% in early New York trading after the US bank reported equities-trading revenue for the first quarter that beat the average analyst estimate and announced a share buyback program of as much as $40 billion. Apple (AAPL): Apple shares jumped in premarket trading on Monday after US President Donald Trump's administration temporarily exempted phones, computers and chips from its so-called reciprocal tariffs. Pfizer (PFE): Pfizer was down in the premarket after news that the pharmaceutical comapny is stopping development of its obesity pill, danuglipron, due to a potentially drug-related liver injury in a clinical trial patient. Intel (INTC): Intel rose on news that it has agreed to sell a 51% stake in its programmable chips unit Altera to Silver Lake Management, valuing Altera at $8.75 billion. (Source: Bloomberg)