Blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk – including Mounjaro, Zepbound, Ozempic and Wegovy – generated over U$40 billion in combined sales last year.
However, Novo Nordisk has warned that the rise in copycat versions of its weight-loss drug in the U.S. and competition from Lilly across several markets is expected to hurt Wegovy sales this year.
Both companies are actively exploring other medical uses for these GLP-1 drugs, aiming to broaden their market reach and secure wider health insurance coverage, a strategy that has already seen some success.
Here are some of the other conditions the drugs are being used and tested for:
Alcohol addiction
A study conducted by the University of Copenhagen’s Psychiatric Centre Rigshospitalet, is investigating whether semaglutide – the main ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic – can help reduce alcohol intake in 108 patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder and obesity.
Alzheimer’s disease
Novo Nordisk is testing semaglutide in a late-stage trial in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease.
The study, which will enrol 1,840 patients, could have an initial data readout as early as later this year.
Cardiovascular disease
Eli Lilly was testing tirzepatide – the main ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound – for patients with heart failure and obesity. Lilly had said it would enrol about 700 people in the study, but the company said in May that it had withdrawn its U.S. application for heart failure approval.
The European Medicines Agency backed the use of Novo’s semaglutide to help ease heart failure symptoms in people with obesity in September 2024.
Chronic kidney disease
Novo’s Ozempic is approved in the United States for reducing the risk of kidney failure and disease progression, as well as the risk of death due to heart problems in diabetes patients with chronic kidney disease.
Lilly’s tirzepatide is being evaluated in a mid-stage study of patients with chronic kidney disease and obesity. Lilly plans to enrol up to 140 participants with the study expected to be completed next year.
Liver disease
Novo is testing semaglutide in a late-stage trial of patients with a common, but difficult to treat, type of fatty liver disease called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. The study is expected to be completed in April 2029 and include about 1,200 patients.
Lilly’s tirzepatide helped up to 74 per cent of patients achieve absence of the disease with no worsening of liver scarring at 52 weeks, compared with 13 per cent of patients on placebo, in a mid-stage trial for NASH, which is also now referred to as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH.
Neurological disorders
Researchers at the Danish Headache Centre are testing semaglutide along with a very low-calorie diet as a treatment for new-onset idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a condition associated with obesity in which blood pressure inside the head rises.
The study has enrolled about 50 patients and is expected to be completed in October 2025.
Sleep apnea
Zepbound was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for obstructive sleep apnea in December 2024, making it the first drug to directly treat patients with the common disorder that causes breathing disruption while sleeping.
