GLP-1s: Beyond Weight Loss

Hi, folks.

I'm Rafe Lewis, head of specialist research at BNY Investments and a host of Double Take podcast, along with my colleague, investigative research analyst, Jack Encarnacio.

As our regular listeners know, Jack and I built this show around the idea that investors like you would really like to hear probing interviews with true experts on all manner of thorny questions facing capital allocators.

And if you put together a list of the thorniest such questions The topic of the weight loss medications known colloquially as GLP-1s would probably be right up there with artificial intelligence as forces of true disruption.

That's

right, Rafe.

And just like with AI, there are a massive amount of claims surrounding GLP-1s when it comes to their potential to upend or even destroy longstanding business models and industries.

Can from companies that, you know, address sleep apnea, those selling salty snacks and alcoholic beverages, and well beyond all of that.

Now, in the few years since ChatGPT turned the world upside down, Rafe and I have devoted a lot of double-take airtime, of course, to AI and how it's remaking entire industries.

But when it comes to GLP-1s, we have done but one episode, and that was back in September of 2023, when the likes of Ozempic, Wagovi, and Manjaro were first taking the world by storm.

You know, and since that time, it's estimated that upwards of one in five Americans have been on GLP-1 drugs at some point.

And perhaps 6% of the adult population today is using them.

That number is certainly set to move higher as the drug class moves from strictly injectables to much cheaper and easier oral medications.

Now, there are a lot of claims about what GLP-1s can and can't do, what non-weight loss related effects they may have on humans.

So we thought we'd invite back friend of the pod, Dr. David Katz, our guest on that very September 2023 show to help us separate the wheat from the chaff, the fat from the fiction, the hype from the sober when it comes to GLP-1s and their broader impacts on the economy.

Jack, why don't you regale our listeners with Dr. Katz's bona fides?

Oh, yeah, my pleasure.

Dr. Katz is president and CEO of DietID, which is a digital health company that provides comprehensive dietary assessments and behavior modification tools for health care, wellness, and research organizations, meaning they work on the population level and not just individual weight management.

DietID holds multiple patents and works side by side with leading health systems and research institutions like the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. David Katz, welcome back to Double Take.

Great to be with you, gentlemen.

Thanks for having me.