Happy New Year from all of us at Childhood Obesity News! What a year it’s been in the realms of childhood obesity issues and treatments, and in the ever-expanding world of weight loss drugs. Here is the outlook for the GLP-1 drugs markets heading into 2025, and a quick rundown of what Americans wish to improve for themselves and their families in the year ahead.
The GLP-1 receptor agonist market will keep flourishing
Yahoo Finance Senior Healthcare and Business Reporter Anjalee Khemlani dove into the details, analyzing the outlook for GLP-1 drugs as markets head into 2025. According to the video commentary,
GLP-1 weight-loss drugs have dominated healthcare headlines in 2024, marked by expanded employer coverage, dynamic pricing changes, and pharmaceutical giants like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly exploring broader applications beyond weight management, including heart disease and sleep apnea treatments.
Khemlani thinks all these trends will continue well into the future, and depending on the government regulations, will reshape our thinking of weight loss treatments.
Also, according to Khemlani, the biggest catalysts for the healthcare industry in general, expected in the new year, are GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and proposed regulations on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from the second Trump administration.
New Year’s resolutions: the poll
According to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, many Americans are focused on improving their health, fitness, and diet in 2025. These types of resolutions top the list of changes they hope to make in the new year. Additionally, goals related to finances and relationships also rank highly among the 1,251 adults surveyed. The survey, which used a representative sample from NORC’s AmeriSpeak Panel, has a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points. Newsweek reported on the poll results, with commentary.
Why It matters
This poll, released last Saturday, comes at a time when obesity continues to be a major health concern in the U.S., contributing to rising rates of heart disease and diabetes. By 2035, global obesity rates are expected to affect 1.5 billion adults.
Obesity rates in the U.S. have been steadily climbing for years, but the trend reversed last year for the first time in over a decade. The national obesity rate dropped slightly from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023.
A recent study in the JAMA Health Forum also showed that between 2013 and 2021, the average body mass index (BMI) of the U.S. population increased. However, this trend plateaued in 2022 and dipped slightly in 2023.
Part of this change may be attributed to the rise in popularity of weight-loss medications like Ozempic, which are particularly common in the Southern U.S. and are believed to have played a role in the national decrease in obesity rates.
Poll results
The new poll reveals that over half of Americans plan to set at least one resolution for 2025, with younger generations — millennials and Gen Z — showing the most enthusiasm. Around two-thirds of people in these age groups say they intend to make resolutions, compared to about half of older adults. Women are also more likely than men to set goals for the year ahead.
Among the types of resolutions, nearly 30% of adults are focused on exercise or healthier eating. Around 25% aim to lose weight, while similar percentages are planning financial or mental health-related resolutions.
Newsweek quoted Andres J. Acosta, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor and consultant in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic:
With an influx of new weight-loss drugs poised to enter the market, the trial-and-error process (for obesity treatments) will likely intensify. Patients will face an overwhelming list of choices — and bear the burden of figuring out what works for their bodies. While more treatments may seem like progress, it risks turning obesity care into an endless experiment.
Ohio GOP U.S. Representative Brad Wenstrup and Wisconsin Democratic U.S. Representative Gwen Moore also expressed their opinion:
There is now a consensus in the medical community that obesity is a complex and chronic disease that can be caused by many factors. This new understanding of obesity means we must change how it is treated, especially when we have new tools to treat it. This starts by expanding access to treatments such as intensive behavioral therapy (IBT), comprehensive nutritional and mental health treatment and new, highly effective, anti-obesity medications.
What’s next?
Looking to the future, researchers behind a September CDC study predict that the obesity crisis in the U.S. will worsen without significant intervention. They project that by 2050, nearly 260 million Americans will be overweight or obese.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “What’s next for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs in 2025?,” Yahoo Finance, 12/24/24
Source: “3 biggest catalysts expected for healthcare in 2025,” Yahoo Finance, 12/24/24
Source: “Here’s How Americans Want to Change Their Lives in 2025: New Poll,” Newsweek, 12/28/24
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