CNBC’s “Fast Money” team discusses new obesity drug data and the market leaders, including Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, with Dr. Kavita Patel, NBC News and MSNBC medical contributor.

Dr. Kavita Patel, a medical contributor, discussed the recent developments in Novo Nordisk's obesity treatments, emphasizing that the cost of the new Wegovy pill will be a significant consideration for prescribers. She noted that while Novo Nordisk has released encouraging data on both oral and injectable medications, factors such as gastrointestinal side effects, medication adherence, and especially cost will influence how widely the pill is prescribed.

Patel also pointed out that pharmaceutical companies are offering various formulations and dosing options to cater to different patient needs, including those seeking maximum weight loss or minimal side effects. She mentioned ongoing adjustments in dosing and the importance of addressing muscle loss, which can occur with significant weight reduction.

Cost will be key for Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill, says Dr. Patel

For more on the prescriber perspective, let's bring in Dr. Kavita Patel. She's an NBC News and MSNBC medical contributor. Dr. Patel, great to have you with us. I know you wear a trader hat sometimes, so it's great to get your perspective. In terms of the outperformance we saw, Novo versus Lilly this week, there seems to be a real investor sentiment shift based on what happened at that conference in Vienna. And so I'm curious if, from your standpoint, if Novo has pulled out in front. Yeah, I think, look, we've talked about Cagrosem and the earlier phase three trials with, that's again, just for memory, the combination of cagrolinatide and the semiglutide, cagrolinatide and semiglutide as an injectable and how that was disappointing or perceived as disappointing, unfortunately. But we have even more data, both oral and injectable from Novo that's giving a lot of positive reinforcement. And I think more than anything, it's just clear that Novo Nordisk is kind of going, not just in obesity, but beyond obesity, to think about all the things that we've been talking about with Lilly's drugs, presepotide, food noise. And from a prescriber's standpoint, remember, GI side effects, medication adherence, and cost are big drivers. It'll be interesting to see how Novo deals with that. The pill can be one thing, higher oral medication and dosing, but having to deal with some of those other things, cost being number one, is going to be important for the prescribing uptake. And so I'm curious in terms of where you think this is going, because it seems like they're coming out with different offerings, different tweaks on various molecules to appeal to different segments of the population, those who want maximum weight loss, who are willing to put up with the side effects, those who want pretty strong weight loss, but with only minimal side effects. It seems like it's hitting more sort of points of the consumer, where the consumer would want to take this drug. Yeah, Melissa, you're reading my mind because this is what patients want. So you have a core group of patients who really are demonstrating consistent weight loss on dosing that, let's be honest, they're talking about dosing that can be low. Lilly Direct's program has allowed for patients to have these kind of vials that can access different dosing than in the standard injection. And we're seeing this in real world evidence with patients. People are saying, well, I only need one milligram instead of five milligrams. So they're adjusting the dose to tweak either to a desired obesity kind of weight loss goal. And or what will be really interesting is T-Rex and some of the trials that come out with trizepatite plus resistance. So we're talking about some of the things that you can do on top of the drug and to see if that can reduce some of those, not necessarily just the dosing, but to counter some of the claims around the sarcopenia, which is the muscle loss that sometimes we see when people lose that much fat. They lose muscle accordingly.

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