Innovation to see a new miracle drug from Wegovy every few years

Miraculous pharmacological innovations, like those that sparked the meteoric rise of Wegovy and Zepbound, could arrive every two years thanks to new technologies, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers predicted Tuesday.

Speaking on a World Economic Forum panel moderated by CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick, Summers said the world was currently in “a moment of astonishing technological possibilities” that was driving unprecedented innovation.

“There has never been a time when the world’s technological possibilities have been as bright as they are today,” he said in Davos, Switzerland, touting advances in the green energy, computing and life sciences sectors.

“We are going to enter a world where we will see something like Wegovy and semaglutides (a miracle drug, a new one) every two years,” he said. “And I think AI will be to the Internet what the computer was to the calculator.”

Semaglutides, a class of drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, have become a weight loss phenomenon in recent years. Demand for the drug has driven great commercial success for pharmaceutical giants, including Nordiskwhich manufactures semaglutides under the brands Wegovy and Ozempic, and Eli Lillyproduced by competitor Zepbound.

The drugs have also been associated with additional improved health outcomes, with trial data pointing to a reduced risk of major cardiovascular events and substance abuse.

Summers suggested that such wide-ranging applications could be replicated in other groups of drugs and medical conditions in the future.

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of a Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartistook a more cautious tone about the prospects of these miracle drug groups.

Referring specifically to the group of anti-obesity drugs, Narasimhan said on Tuesday that while such innovations were “important,” they were unlikely to completely resolve underlying health problems.

“They will certainly significantly help a subset of patients,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“But the truth is that taking these drugs for a lifetime is a pretty heavy task, especially when you get outside of advanced healthcare systems,” he said, noting that a comprehensive “rethinking” of food systems was necessary to combat obesity. and associated health problems.

Novartis has so far stayed out of the increasingly competitive weight-loss drug market, telling CNBC in September that it had There are no plans to join the “frenzy.”

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Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Larry Summers’ name in the headline.