“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Via Reuters:
“The widespread use of powerful new weight-loss drugs in the United States could boost gross domestic product by 1% in the coming years as lower obesity-related complications are likely to boost workplace efficiency, according to Goldman Sachs.
Some analysts have predicted the market for weight-loss drugs could reach $100 billion a year by the end of the decade, with Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab and Mounjaro producer Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab leading the race.
The class of drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, are being keenly pursued by several companies and more could enter the market depending on clinical trials. The use of GLP-1s could increase by anywhere between 10 to 70 million consumers by 2028, Goldman Sachs said on Thursday.
‘If GLP-1 usage ultimately increases by this amount and results in lower obesity rates, we see scope for significant spillovers to the broader economy,’ Goldman economists said in a note.
‘Academic studies find that obese individuals are both less likely to work and less productive when they do.’”
*And what about when a giant whopper of a thyroid tumor induced by Ozempic crops up in the fatties’ throatholes? Are workers with thyroid cancer “more productive” as well?
And what when their intestines seize up into a steel ball and it explodes in their morbidly obese tum-tums? Are workers likely to be “more productive” then?
Or when they shoot themselves in the head thanks to Ozempic? Are workers without brains also “more productive”?
Related: Surprise, Surprise, Right in Your Eyes: ‘Miracle’ Weight Loss Drug Not So Miraculous
Continuing:
“The brokerage estimated weight-loss drugs could bolster U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.4% in a scenario with 30 million users, and could rise to 1% with 60 million users.
The current wave of healthcare innovation such as AI-powered drug discovery coupled with GLP-1s could raise the level of U.S. GDP by 1.3% in the coming years, equivalent to $360 billion per year in current exchange rates, with potential for an increase ranging from 0.6% to 3.2%.”
Note that nowhere in this write-up is there any expression of the purported health benefits of Ozempic for individuals; it’s all about an obsession with mass-prescribing the drug in the name of nudging the GDP up on the flimsiest of grounds — that less obesity translates into greater worker productivity, irrespective of what the economists call “externalities.”
This is not an oversight on the part of Reuters or Goldman Sachs regarding what to emphasize.
Promoting health isn’t a priority for Goldman Sachs. The firm says so itself, and explicitly so.
Related: Wall St. Cashes in on Ozempic Grift
“In a report recently published for its biotech clients, Goldman Sachs questioned whether curing people is good for business.
‘Is curing patients a sustainable business model?’ the company’s analysts asked in an April 10 report about promising research into the human genome. The Goldman Sachs report, which was obtained by CNBC, does not answer that uncomfortable question directly.
But it does point to pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences as a cautionary tale. The company introduced a treatment for hepatitis C in 2015 that cured more than 90 percent of patients. In the years since, sales of the treatment dropped drastically, according to Goldman Sachs.
While ‘one shot’ cures are one of the most popular aspects of genome research, ‘such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies,’ Goldman Sachs analyst Salveen Richter reportedly wrote to clients.
“’While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow,’ he added.”
Does it get much unabashedly eviler than that?
In related news, Novo Nordisk, Ozempic manufacturer, recently nudged past Tesla the stock market sweepstakes, via Reuters:
“Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) on Thursday surpassed Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) in market valuation after the maker of the popular weight-loss drug Wegovy announced positive early trial data for a highly anticipated new obesity drug.
Shares surged more than 8% to record highs, shooting Novo Nordisk up in global rankings to the 12th most valuable company from 14 previously, after it told investors a Phase I trial of the pill version of experimental drug amycretin showed participants lost 13.1% of their weight after 12 weeks.”
Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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