Dr. Ashish Jha, Brown School of Public Health, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk Novo Nordisk getting approval fro a Wegovy pill, sending its stock climbing.

New York

Dr. Ashish Jha, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, discussed the recent approval of Novo Nordisk's oral GLP-1 drug, Wegovy, highlighting its effectiveness in treating obesity and related diseases. He noted that the pill form could increase accessibility for those unwilling to use injections and is expected to see high demand both in the U.S. and globally.

Jha explained that while upfront healthcare costs may rise due to the drug's expense, significant long-term health benefits and potential downstream cost savings could result from wider adoption. He emphasized that the primary goal is improved public health and longevity, rather than immediate cost reduction.

Dr. Ashish Jha talks Novo Nordisk getting approval for Wegovy pill

Joining me now is Dr. Ashish Jha. He is the outgoing dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University and the former White House COVID-19 response coordinator. Doctor, thank you for joining us today. So what do you see, just if we can take a step back here, is the total addressable market for a pill of GLP-1. How big ultimately do you think this could be? Yes, first of all, thanks for having me back. I think this is a big deal and let me explain why. More than 100 million Americans have obesity. We know these pills are extraordinarily effective for obesity. They're very, very good. Or this drug, whether it's injectable or oral, is great for preventing cardiovascular disease, liver disease, lots and lots of problems. About 10 to 15 percent of Americans hate injections, just hate it, will not take an injectable. For them, this becomes much easier. The supply chain here, the ability to get it out into pharmacies, to get it out to Costco, all of that is so much easier with a pill that I see just a lot more Americans and people around the world taking an oral version of this drug. Americans, do you think there's obviously a global market for it as well? How do you see the competitive environment shaping up here? Yeah, so Novo goes first. Lily is not far behind. We don't know exactly when Lily will get across the finish line, but I suspect probably three, four months behind Bugovi. And Novo's job is to try to get as many people signed up as possible, because once they're on it and doing fine, they're going to be loathe to switch. So I think you're going to see this very mad rush in the beginning to sign up as many people as possible before Lily comes out with this drug. It's possible, and I think likely the Lily drug will be a little bit more effective in terms of weight loss, but both of them are extraordinarily effective at getting people to lose weight and getting all the benefits of that weight loss. If you see even just a 10 to 15 percent uptick, which you describe as the cohort of people who are loathe to use an injection. So if you see that much more uptake here, if these drugs work to reduce obesity and other comorbidities, will that drive overall spending on health care down? I mean, what are some of the best case scenarios here in terms of health care spending, in terms of just longevity? Yeah, so those are two separate issues in my mind, what's going to happen to health care spending and what's going to happen to longevity. Look, if a lot more people take this, there is no question in my mind that we're going to see huge benefits from a health point of view. One of the reasons Americans live shorter lives than Europeans is we have a lot more obesity in this country, and if we can cure that through a pill or an injection, that's going to have huge downstream benefits from health. Upfront, we're going to pay more. Upfront, these drugs are going to be expensive. Even if the prices come down, it's going to be a new cost to the system. So for the first few years, I think costs are going to go up. But hey, health is going to improve, and that is really important. And hopefully down the road, five, ten years down the road, we can get some of the benefits in terms of costs as well. But this is not a cost play for health care, this is a health play. And I think it's good. As a health person, I want to see people live longer, healthier lives.

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