Copy: The Year of Weight Loss Medicines

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Mark Filipino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, December 22. And that’s your FT News summary.

The Bank of England may start cutting rates next year. And weight loss drugs like Ozympic are in the news a lot. But are we missing their true potential?

Hannah Kuchler
They’re not just like slimming jabs, but they’re actually really powerful prevention tools.

Mark Filipino
Additionally, we take a look at the growing fertility industry in India. I’m Mark Philippines and here’s the news you need to start your day.

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UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has raised the possibility of cutting interest rates in 2024. He recently told the FT that next year the country needs to overcome its pessimism about the economy, especially since we saw UK inflation fall to 3.9. percent last month and interest rates in the UK are at a 15-year high. But ultimately it’s up to the Bank of England. And one of the banks’ governors said this week that uncertainty about the UK labor market would mean there would be a wait before rates fell.

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FT has chosen Lars Fruergaard Jrgensen as its Person of the Year. He is the CEO of Novo Nordisk. Now, if none of these names sound familiar, the company’s leading drugs are probably Ozympic and Vigoi. These are game-changing treatments for obesity and two of the most talked about drugs this year. Here’s FTs International Pharmacist, Hannah Kuchler, to discuss Jrgensen and the effects of this drug. Hey, Hannah.

Hannah Kuchler
Hello.

Mark Filipino
all right. So tell us a little bit about Jrgensen and his role in developing this drug.

Hannah Kuchler
So you are right to say that he will not be a household name. But I think as Ozympic and Vigovi became household names, he played a really important role because these are drugs that really have the potential to rehabilitate society. You know, obesity has a huge cost to health systems. It costs as much as lost work days. And that might be the thing that actually encourages us to think more preventively. They’re not just like slimming jabs, but they’re actually really powerful prevention tools. They reduce the risk of serious cardiovascular events, and those are really expensive things for health care systems. So if they can pay for that drug now to get that benefit later, that could be really important.

Mark Filipino
i see. So they see this medicine as a kind of preventive measure. This is part of its health. But how did this drug become a cultural phenomenon?

Hannah Kuchler
yes. I mean, it’s so funny because… So I met Jorgensen in Copenhagen a few weeks ago, and he’s not the kind of guy to keep up with celebrity news. But this drug really popularized by Hollywood actually started last year when Kim Kardashian went to the Met Gala.

Kim Kardashian Sound Clip
Say anyone can see it, I know the process it took to log in…

Hannah Kuchler
And she got down to Marilyn Monroe’s little dress.

Kim Kardashian Sound Clip
I tried it. It didn’t suit me. So I looked at him and said, give me three weeks, and I…

Hannah Kuchler
Now she has not admitted to taking them. And often celebrities don’t. But now the kind of working assumption for most popular audiences is that most people are into it. It became a big joke at this year’s Oscars…

Jimmy Kimmel Sound Clip
Everyone looks great. As I look around this room, I can’t help but wonder, is Ozympic right for me?

Hannah Kuchler
And it’s clearly created demand in the real world.

Mark Filipino
Yes, there is a lot of hype. But what are some of the criticisms or even the long-term public health implications of these drugs?

Hannah Kuchler
yes. So there are still major supply constraints in the short term. Part of it is that they basically didn’t anticipate the type of demand there would be. And there are concerns that the way they are currently being conducted is too uneven. It seems that celebrities can even get Ozympic, which focuses on diabetes and you are meant to have diabetes. And diabetics sometimes struggle to do that. I think in the long run, what they’re willing to do is have a more equal presence. But to do that, they have to have health insurance, cover it widely, and they have to have government systems that pay for health care, cover it widely. And they experiment with things. They offer all kinds of ways, get the medicine now, pay later when you see the benefits and all kinds of things. But it’s a broader question like, does it remain so unequal?

Mark Filipino
yes. You know, what does this rise in popularity tell us about where the pharmaceutical industry is now?

Hannah Kuchler
I think what I find kind of impressive and interesting is that pharma companies have become kind of engines of M&A in many ways. Most of the time they don’t do much research at home. They only select small biotechs and commercialize products and Novo Nordisk has been doing this for 32 years. This is the opposite of overnight success and innovation. And so I think it shows that it’s still possible. Eli Lilly, one of their long-standing competitors, is the only other company to have improved its obesity rates internally. And so it might have some companies thinking about their models.

Mark Filipino
Hannah Kuchler is FTs global pharmaceuticals editor. Thank you, Hannah.

Hannah Kuchler
thank you.

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Mark Filipino
This year, India surpassed China as the most populous country in the world. But one of the overlooked trends is that the birth rate has come down a bit and fertility clinics have now become big business in India. This is the final part of our three-part series on the changing face of India. Today, we look at how the birth trade has affected a family in Mumbai. Our reporter Chloe Cornish has this report.

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maya
It took us at least 10 years to conceive.

Chloe Cornish
This is Maya, a 38-year-old beautician and Mani’s mother. (baby song)

Chloe Cornish
She is an adorable three-year-old, walking on all fours, wearing a tiara.

maya
Are you a prince?

Masnavi
yes.

Chloe Cornish
Her hair is short and dark like a bird. This is because the family has just returned from a visit to a temple in southern India where Manvi and her father Sunil shaved their heads and donated hair. The temple is very special to the family because Manavi was born six months after they first visited. Maya shows me before and after pictures.

maya
We try to recreate the same pictures without her and with her. So he asks me, Mama, why am I not in the picture? So that’s why we made all things. So we have to tell her, you are in my belly when we go there.

Chloe Cornish
Maya had to face the painful hurdle of pre-pregnancy pills and poor medical advice.

maya
Initially, I started treatment in a (inaudible) hospital, but the condition was so bad, so bad, that every time I went to them, it was like fear and shame. How would you open your body in front of someone else? And they speak rudely to you. You are like a human being.

Chloe Cornish
For a while, Maya stopped trying and started saving money. And while she was doing beauty treatments, her clients opened up about their fertility struggles.

maya
Of course, we talked about it, a couple of my clients, they went to the same doctor and I said, why not? I might as well try it now. I can afford it.

Chloe Cornish
This is how she came to know about private doctors, like Dr. Kaushal Kadam.

maya
So I went there and talked to the doctor. I was very relaxed. So she was very sweet, as I knew, it could go this way. It will be done this way.

Chloe Cornish
When Dr. Kaushal opened her clinic in Mumbai 13 years ago, most of her patients came from abroad for surrogacy. But these days, she is busy with local clients like Maya.

Dr. Kaushal Kadam
More and more Indian patients started asking for help. And that is why now even when very few international patients come, we ourselves have many Indian patients seeking treatment from us.

Chloe Cornish
Women in India now give birth to an average of two children. This is below the level needed to accommodate the population. It’s higher than birth rates in places like the United States, but it’s lower than it was in the 1950s. The average woman had six children.

Dr. Kaushal Kadam
When I used to hear these words from my parents, it used to be like in India, married couples would give birth to children in one year. And now the trend is changing.

Chloe Cornish
As education and employment opportunities improve, middle-class families are having fewer children and becoming pregnant later in life. But due to younger onset and other factors such as stress, many parents will find it difficult to conceive.

The cost of in vitro fertilization is too high for many Indian families. Maya opted instead for hysterectomy, where a doctor injects sperm into a patient’s uterus. It is very affordable at around $100 per cycle. But Maya and Sunil still have to make huge sacrifices to pay for it.

maya
We cut back on everything else, like you know, not going on vacation, not going to the movies. (Inaudible) Nothing.

Chloe Cornish
Couples like Maya and Sunil are far from alone. The Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction says that one in six couples struggle to conceive. Dr. Kaushal says the business has grown since the beginning of the decade.

Dr. Kaushal Kadam
When I started there were only a few centers, you know. And I think the boom was really the reason why we have so many clinics that offer different services to patients. But in a way that it also helped because it created awareness, you know, among patients. And now patients have a choice.

Chloe Cornish
For investors, this represents a huge business opportunity. Now Indian banks are supporting the green industry, offering personal loans for fertility treatments. Four of India’s leading fertility groups are backed by private investors. This shows how keen they are to take advantage of the sector’s growth. Indra, the largest chain of fertility centers in India, was valued at more than $1 billion when multinational private equity group EQT bought a majority stake this July.

Dr. Kushal’s clinic is on the smaller end of the industry, but he is busy. He says he sees about 10 parents every day. And in Maya, he has one very satisfied customer.

maya
No, I have no regrets. I’m glad we did it. Very, very happy about it.

Chloe Cornish
For the FT News Brief, Um Chloe Cornish. Special thanks to Jyotsna Singh for his assistance in reporting and producing this piece.

Mark Filipino
That’s it for our series on a changing India. If you missed part 1 and 2, check out our December 20th and 21st episodes to catch up.

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You can read more about all these stories for free on FT.com when you click the links in our show notes. This is your daily FT News summary. And, hey, doing something else next week. Well highlight the show from our great colleagues here at the FT. Be sure to join and see all of you in 2024.

The FT News Brief is produced by Kasia Bruslian, Sonja Hutson, Fiona Simon and myself, Mark Filippino. Our engineer is Monica Lopez. We had help this week from Joanna Cao, Josh Gabbert-Duyon, Brian Turner, David da Silva, Michael Lello, Peter Barber and Gavin Kalman. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Bromley is FTs Global Head of Audio, and our theme song is by Metaphor Music.

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