It’s almost impossible to read an article, have a discussion, or even watch celebrity news without the topic of GLP-1s coming up. While a significant benefit to diabetes patients, what makes GLP-1s a true game-changing drug class is their potential to have meaningful impact on the treatment of other disease areas beyond diabetes, including obesity and obesity-related complications/comorbidities (e.g., sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease).
Given all the discussion, it’s easy to be a bit overwhelmed by the opinions and hard to understand the potential impact that the drug class will have. While it’s a constantly emerging space, with evolving reimbursement and coverage, as well as long-term clinical concerns that still need to be evaluated, we wanted to assess the potential impact of GLP-1s might impact on various disease areas and what it may mean for Medtechs going forward.
Our key finding at this stage is that typically GLP-1s are likely to be complementary to existing standard of care vs. displacing in nature. While GLP-1 impact across conditions/procedures is likely to vary, we view GLP-1s as a friend (or perhaps a frenemy) for most Medtechs vs. a foe. As we discuss in this report, the headwinds affecting GLP-1s are very real and even if fully addressed, GLP-1s are unlikely to meet the needs of all eligible patients. Hence, we believe Medtechs and GLP-1s both have a multitude of upsides to pursue, some even in partnership with each other.
To learn more, please download our analysis.
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