Lexaria Bioscience provides updates on current GLP-1 market

Lexaria Bioscience provides an update on recent glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist market sector advancements In 2020 the total market size for GLP-1 drugs was less than $4 billion. That same year, Novo Nordisk paid $1.8 billion to purchase Emisphere’s SNAC drug delivery technology which was subsequently incorporated into Rybelsus semaglutide oral tablets, resulting in the first and only Food and Drug Administration approved GLP-1 drug for use as an oral tablet. Today, the GLP-1 market is growing faster than nearly all historic forecasts had predicted. Bay Bridge Bio has published a useful interactive chart which highlights that, while there are a number of GLP-1 drug brands available today, over 95% of the current market is served by only two drugs: semaglutide manufactured by Novo Nordisk; and the dual action GLP-1 plus glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor agonist tirzepatide manufactured by Eli Lilly. Combined revenue of these two drugs during Q2, 2024, was $11.04 billion compared to $5.89 billion in Q2, 2023, and just $2.55 billion during Q2, 2022. As a stark comparison, these drugs generated less than $300 million during the entire year of 2018. Despite this unprecedented growth, GLP-1/GIP drugs currently delivered by oral tablet comprise only roughly 10% of the entire market dominated by injectable delivery. The share of the market addressed with oral tablets is likely to grow aggressively as patients are expected to migrate away from injections as more available oral forms become available. Lexaria expects that its DehydraTECH drug delivery system could be a global leader in GLP-1/GIP drug delivery as oral delivery dominates in the years to come. Analysts around the world have been trying to keep up with GLP-1 trends. Compounding the difficulty in doing so is projecting which major pharmaceutical firms will achieve approval for GLP-1/GIP and related drugs currently in the development pipeline. Tirzepatide, for example, was only approved by the FDA in May, 2022, but Eli Lilly is forecasting $15 billion in revenue from the drug during calendar 2024. Lexaria has already provided evidence that DehydraTECH seems to provide improved drug delivery kinetics and improved blood sugar control with the world’s leading GLP-1 drug: semaglutide. Lexaria’s interest and focus on the GLP-1/GIP and related drug sector will continue for the foreseeable future with additional studies and evaluation.