๐ America's Obesity Problem is Worth BILLION$ to Pharma Monopolies ๐ฐ
Exploring the Economics for the Corporate Capture of (what could be) Sovereign Health
Popular weight-loss drug WEGOVY was just recently approved for โHeart Health.โ โค๏ธ
๐ฉ๐ฐ This drug is made by a company you may have heard about in the News lately, called Novo Nordisk with an Annual Revenue of $65.86 Billion. Makers of Ozempic and Wegovy alike. And obviously they don't only sell obesity drugs.
๐คฃ Funny enough, at the time of my initial outline for today's story, I saw the news that Novo Nordisk had actually surged in evaluation with a market value of $598.43 Billion, surpassing other notable names such as Tesla ๐ and Visa ๐ณ thanks to the results of yet another weight loss drug, this one called Amycretin.
๐ HURRAH. HURRAY. ๐
๐ญ "Someone is making money, that's for sure."
Welcome back to ZigZag Nutrition.
Today, Iโm going to discuss the wild ride of weight loss drugs that healthcare has seen in recent years. With more companies taking aim for Americaโs obesity epidemic, there is much money to be made, but are people really getting better? Are they really living healthier, happier lives?
Perhaps there could be a better way? What do you think? Let me know in the comments section at the end of this post.
Some of my communityโs favorite posts related to todayโs topic are linked below if you want to take a look around.
Letโs Dive In!
๐ The global weight management market size was valued at USD 142.58 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.94% from 2023 to 2030.
๐ฐ As more money is being made, more people are being โtreatedโ while being forced into paying extravagant prices for drugs they feel they absolutely need for weight loss.
๐ฉ Consumers are more constipated, vomiting more, and dealing with daily indigestion. Employers are going broke as consumers demand for more and more and moreโฆ instead of taking ownership with a highly-tailored functional & lifestyle medicine designed therapeutic treatment plan. ๐ฑ
I mean, for goodness sakes, your weight does NOT equal your health OR your happiness OR quality of life. ๐ฏ (but they are related)
Yet we continue to blindly chase a pill for every ill or weekly injection over deep introspection. ๐ง ๐ฅ
We need more focus for Activating Health instead of Pharmaceutically โtreating"โ disease. Sure, these companies are going to make BILLIONS, but the trends for poor health are still flooding the streets. ๐ธ
๐ We must do better and we absolutely can.๐
For example, as compared to privately patented peptide therapies, has anyone talked to these patients about trialing 3-4 weeks of 3 sessions of 15-min moderate intensity exercise each day + strategically dosing Essential Amino Acids to cut cravings and curb appetite? Try this and tell me you donโt feel better and have eaten less. All without vomiting or constipation or paying $1200+/mo. ๐ค๐ฅ
Js.
Exploring the Economics for the Corporate Capture of (what could be) Sovereign Health
Each year, the grand o'l United States of America spend nearly a whopping $5 Trillion Dollars on Healthcare. And I'm sure we have all seen by now the beatific image below that so marvelously displays the bold advantages we have in this country when it comes to greater payments for greater outcomes.
๐ณ Oh wait. I must have thought we were Japan or Switzerland for a moment.
Whoops. My mistake. ๐
While we spend an astronomical amount of money each year on health, what on earth do we have to show for it when our population is of the most sick, obese, susceptible to novel viruses (with ๐ or without vaccines, js.), dealing with poor metabolic health, chronically overly stressed and under relaxed, perpetually pushing the envelope while we groggily keep pushing snooze on our alarm clocks because "our bodies simply don't work like they used to."
โ๏ธ Here's just one of the major problems we are dealing with. You see, despite our outstanding expenditures, less than 3 percent of that spending is directed toward public health and prevention. Less than 3%.
Crumbs. Planning for the future? You get crumbs? Wanting to PREVENT bad things from happening? You get crumbs? Got it!? Good. ๐
As I mentioned in my last story, the system is broken and we all know it.
๐ค It is quite literally built to prop-up financial gain of corporatized 'medicine' while fostering lifelong dependency for its hungry customers.... I mean patients. As I will allude to further on below, Food and Pharma really are quite interconnected. So, as they say, "feed them poison and treat them with drugs."
โThe doctor of the future will give no medication but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of diseaseโโ Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931)
Furthermore, growing concerns have sparked quite a controversy in recent years with analysis coming from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine amongst others that highlights more ways in which the system that we all depend on is exceptionally broken indeed.
Medical Errors May Be the 3rd Leading Cause of Death in U.S.
I guess we can be good at something...
According to reports, the CDCโs way of collecting national health statistics fails to classify medical errors separately on the death certificate. The researchers suggested that most errors represent systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care, fragmented insurance networks, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols, in addition to unwarranted variation in physician practice patterns that lack accountability.
And if you or a loved one has ever spent extensive time in any hospital, it is likely you have walked away with a very terrible taste in your mouth, one that lasts longer than milk of magnesium or those glorious glyphosate Cheerios they too often feed you. I have experienced this myself after a 2-yr span of seeing around 5-12 different doctors, specialists, exams, and procedures for exploratory concerns all to no avail or any sense of insightful prognostication.
This level of brokenness is pervasive throughout standard care along with extensive poor system design, which is just one aspect of what Shobha Dasari wrote about in her book, "Hacking Healthcare."
Our aim in healthcare ought not to be exploitative with our fear mongering, fanciful claims made on television, or by the prices we press on to the consumer. Our aims should be aligned with the Hippocratic oath, and not dependent upon the opinions of whoever signs our checks. Our objective should be to WORK ourselves OUT of a job. For as I have always said, the best doctors are often the best teachers, hence where the term doctor (docere - to teach) comes from.
โThe aim of medicine is to prevent disease and prolong life; the ideal of medicine is to eliminate the need of a physician.โ
โWilliam J. Mayo (1861-1939)
If you're anything like me, you have probably asked yourself at least once or twice, "I wonder what the founding fathers of this country would think about the corporate greed or monopolized power of today?"
So, tell me. What do you think? What would they would say?
Would they stand for it? Even a little bit? How would they handle this situation?
Would they have appreciated the fact that most of our military recruits are not fit for service, primarily due to metabolic health issues? Do you think they would stand for the petulant parasite that insatiably feasts on the American consumer while enabling he or she to become sicker and sicker?
Maybe you didn't read the script that repeats itself over and over and over? This is a highly, and I mean highly lucrative industry.
I remember when I first learned about Humira, because my mom has Crohn's Disease. Then I distinctively remember seeing it get approved for disease after disease, condition after condition, many of which I fully understood could be positively impacted by the power of food and lifestyle changes thanks to my experience and education in Functional Medicine.
I watched. I listened. I observed. I took mental notes over the years. I learned quite well. Let's take this one simple example shall we? You see, Humira was an immunosuppressant drug that was approved for several autoimmune conditions with a market monopoly on the medication. All in all, the drug manufacturer, Abbvie, and it's former parent company Abbott Laboratories, all in all made an estimated $200 Billion dollars over 2 decades.
But wait, they script still isn't over.
This is how it always ends. After the patents. After the money is made. Side effects rise to the surface, data emerges that wasn't there before. People start to sue, litigations are made. But much damage has already been done. Recently, people who used Humira to treat symptoms of several inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis and others have sued the drug's maker over allegations that it failed to adequately warn of the risks, namely invasive fungal infections, nerve damage and cancer. Fun stuff.
You see, what's wild is that we often pay companies indirectly to help them secure patents in research to sell us expensive products with risky (not always so well disclosed) side effects instead of simply crafting lifestyles that naturally support prevention, early treatment, and provide real solutions.
You see, it's estimated that anywhere from 70-90% of chronic diseases are largely preventable through diet and lifestyle medicine interventions. American College of Lifestyle Medicine But remember, we only give out crumbs to those of us who care about the prevention of disease by means of diet and lifestyle.
Similarly, we typically consider the notion that 80-90% of someone's modifiable contributors to health outcomes point back to the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), being health-related behaviors, socioeconomic factors, and environmental factors. The other 10-20% is estimated to account for medical care itself.
So, as you can see, there is actually quite a lot of power that resides in our hands that we can shape and mold like clay to a potter if we truly want to create something meaningful and remarkably different across all of health, healing, and healthcare alike.
"The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it."
- Hippocrates
Recommended Reading:
As Dr. Mark Hyman, MD so succinctly puts it, we have the power to improve our health at the end of our forks.
Highly recommend you read his book Food Fix as well as Robert Lustig's book Metabolical.
Food Politics by Marion Nestle
Until Next Time,
I wanted to leave you with some current numbers from 2023 and financial reports for a few companies you may have heard of. ๐ค๐ญ Many of these players dabble in weight loss along with a long list of products over the years.
Eli Lilly
Annual Revenue of $34.12ย Billion
Market Cap of $720.87 Billion
Novo Nordisk
Annual Revenue of $65.86 Billion
Market Cap of $598.43 Billion
Merck
Annual Revenue of $60.12ย billion
Market Cap of $310.65 billion
Pfizer
Annual Revenue of $14.25 Billion
Market Cap of $159.35 Billion
Moderna
Annual Revenue of 2.81 Billion
Market Cap of 42.78 Billion
Johnson & Johnson
Annual Revenue of 21.39 Billion
Market Cap of 388.05 Billion
AstraZeneca
Annual Revenue of 12.02 Billion
Market Cap of 209.52 Billion
To see the full updated list for the global evaluation metrics for common Pharmaceutical Companies, check over here.
The image below is a snapshot of the Top Ten Companies by market cap at the time of my writing this on March 13, 2024
ZigZag Nutrition represents the pursuit we share as we strive to live this life as best as we can, learning and growing, flexing and adapting along the way to better align ourselves to the most nutritious life and lifestyle that meets our needs and nourishes our body, mind, and spirit - together.
Thank you for being here. Please consider sharing this story with a friend or use it as a catalyst for conversation. See you next time! ๐ค