IFI Insights - Anti-Obesity Drugs: Which Pharmaceuticals Carry the Most Patent Weight?
The growing success of GLP-1 agonists in treating obesity has ignited a gold rush among pharmaceuticals and biotechs. Such medical breakthroughs are generally protected by enforceable patents in order to create a moat around the product. IFI CLAIMS took a look at the industry to see which firms have the best patent position.
GLP-1 Patents: Worth Their Weight In Gold
Dieters have long hungered for a magic pill that offers weight loss without the hard work and judgmental refrains like “mind over matter.” But weight loss, until the last few years, has mostly come down to discipline, exercise, calorie counting, and sensible eating (with some crash diets appearing in the mix). There’s still no magic pill, so to speak. But there are these seemingly magic injections of a synthetic hormone called GLP-1 agonists, which simulate glucagon-like peptide 1 hormones in the body. These drugs can suppress appetite, slow digestion, and increase insulin in patients, leading to weight loss without the use of sheer willpower.
Since the introduction of these GLP-1 injections on the market, results for both patients and the companies that make these medications have been dramatic. Most users can lose anywhere from 5% to more than 20% of their body weight. With outcomes like that, the dominant companies in the field have gained plenty of market weight. Danish company Novo Nordisk, maker of Ozempic (approved to treat type 2 diabetes) and Wegovy (used to shed excess weight), has seen its market cap rise dramatically since mid-2021, when Wegovy was approved by the FDA for weight management (though it has fallen from its previously lofty heights). The other principal player is Eli Lilly, maker of Mounjaro and Zepbound, which has also rewarded investors.
Since the beginning of 2024, prescriptions filled for Wegovy have increased 100%, according to GoodRx, a company that helps patients save money on drugs. For Zepbound, in its first year on the market, fills jumped 300%. And many investors see plenty of opportunity for further growth. Some of that growth could come from government coffers. In November, the Biden administration proposed Medicare coverage for these drugs. Currently, Medicare only covers the therapies if patients have diabetes or heart disease. It’s not yet clear whether the Trump administration will approve the proposal, so the outcome of this possible new revenue stream is far from certain. Even with approval, it may not turn into a gold rush for Novo Nordisk because Ozempic and Wegovy have recently been targeted for price negotiations with the government. As for other pockets of growth? They could come from U.S. consumers willing to pay hefty out-of-pocket costs of more than $1,000 per month when insurance won’t cover the medication. And Novo Nordisk expanded its reach with a launch of Wegovy in China for patients willing to pay out of pocket.
With obesity rates in the U.S. alone at just over 40% of adults, demand for these drugs appears endless. Which competitors are formulating their own strategies to go to market? Companies like Pfizer are getting into the game with the development of a once daily pill called danuglipron (still in trials) that the company hopes will be easier for users who are currently tied to weekly injectables. Amgen just announced promising results from its weight loss drug MariTide, which helped participants shed 20% of body weight. Assuming it passes further trial muster, it will still be some years before the drug is ready for use. Viking Therapeutics has a potential candidate in development called VK2735. And Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand Pharma, among many others, are working on therapies. In a recent analysis, Morningstar predicted 16 new drugs to hit the market in the next five years. By 2031, that market is forecasted to be $200 billion according to the report.
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have next generation remedies on the horizon, so they won’t be giving up their market leadership any time soon. Even so, neither company can afford to rest on its market laurels. Novo Nordisk stock took a dive late last year when another weight loss drug in development showed disappointing results. But the company’s latest quarterly report showed healthy sales for both Ozempic and Wegovy, and projections remain strong. Eli Lilly shares stumbled last month when the company reported slower growth than anticipated, but soon regained investor confidence with an upbeat forecast.
Considering the prospects on the obesity medication horizon, IFI CLAIMS, the industry’s most trusted patent data provider, performed a review of the patent terrain in this promising and important line of innovation. Here is how companies look when viewed from the patent perspective:
Less Willpower, More Patents
Whether the goal is toward better health, enhanced appearance or a combination of both, the idea of losing weight has been around for centuries. Researchers have long applied science and technology in search of the cure for obesity. In recent years, the patent picture bears that out. Just over the past five years, inventors have applied for nearly 6,000 weight loss patents globally. Although there is a slight decline in published patents in 2023, the trendline overall is growing.
Evolution of Weight Loss Drug Patents
Novo Nordisk Is the Patent Heavyweight
Danish company Novo Nordisk has a century’s worth of history in providing treatments for diabetes. The company’s origins lie in the production of insulin, so recent blockbuster medications for diabetes and weight loss are a natural extension of the company’s roots. Eli Lilly and Regeneron are also inventing heavily in the area, as are Asian competitors like Medshine and Hanmi.
Top Applicants for Weight Loss Drug Patents
Weight Class
Weight loss patents fill a big tent. To narrow the technology down to the areas that have created the most market buzz over the past few years, we need to confine the focus to the relevant Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) codes—the hierarchical system used to categorize invention.
The top technology areas cover combinations of organic active ingredients (A61K 2300/00), antiobesity agents (A61P 3/04), antidiabetic drugs (A61P 3/10), and glucagons (A61K 38/26).
Knowing that, it’s informative to examine the CPC codes of companies inventing in this field. A scan of the codes shows both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly with concentrations in the antiobesity and antidiabetic codes. Novo Nordisk and Sanofi both emphasize glucagons. Boehringer and Viking Therapeutics center much of their invention around mixtures of active ingredients.
Top CPC Codes of Weight Loss Drug Patents
Code Name A61P 3/04
Many CPC codes are germane to weight loss drugs. But GLP-1 innovations, which suppress the appetite, are concentrated in the A61P 3/04 code. Over the past five years, more than 1,500 patents with this code have made applications. Nearly 300 patents containing this code have been granted over the same time frame.
Evolution of Antiobesity Agent Patents
Novo Nordisk’s Unsurprising Patent Lead
Within the particular A61P 3/04 code, Novo Nordisk stands at the top of the heap with 68 applications over the past five years, followed by Hanmi (20) and Eli Lilly (18). One of the patents Novo Nordisk filed during this time frame is a compound targeting parts of the brain that regulate body weight (US-11753455-B2). The patent was filed in 2019 and granted in 2023. Another earlier patent along the same technology line is this one (US-11130794-B2) for compounds related to weight loss, diabetes, and cardiovascular issues. In 2019, Eli Lilly filed this GIP/GLP-1 co-agonist compounds patent (US-11084861-B2). It was granted in 2021.
Top Applicants in Antiobesity Agent Patents
The Evolution of Company Weight Loss Invention
Evaluating the antiobesity code by the number of patent publications per year for each company shows the evolution of an organization’s invention. It also suggests which companies are gaining advantage and which might be losing steam. This chart shows both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly with patents tapering as time goes by. The company in this chart that has had the most recent activity is a Chinese pharmaceutical called Hangzhou Zhongmei Huadong. This 2022 patent application for a GLP-1 receptor agonist (US-20240208952-A1) is pending.
Top Patenters Activity Over 5 Years
Evolution, By Technology
Also instructive is determining the evolution of the patent classifications used in weight loss preparations. The antiobesity agents code (A61P 3/04) is very strong, but not necessarily steady, dropping to 283 applications in 2023 compared to 620 in 2020. Same goes for combinations of organic active ingredients (A61K 2300/00), which saw a 578 patent crop in 2020, measured against 0 in 2023.
Invention in a therapeutic technology gets harder to improve upon over time; that’s why pharmaceutical companies are subject to steep patent cliffs when blockbuster drugs lose protection. The industry has a couple of decades to enforce its rights before the market opens up to less expensive generics.
Evolution of Weight Loss Drug Technologies
In Forward Citations, Novo Nordisk Patents Gain Attention
In terms of numbers, having more patents than competitors is one way to measure the competitive advantage. But there are other ways to determine quality in a patent portfolio. One of them is forward citations.
A short primer: To receive a patent, an invention must be novel compared to what has come before, called prior art in the patent industry lingo. When an invention is filed, the inventor references prior art in order to prove the uniqueness of the new idea. Those references are called citations. Citations are measured both backward and forward. A backward citation brings up previously published documents that are foundational to the new invention. Forward citations measure how often subsequent patents refer to an earlier patent. Forward citations, especially during the first year after granting, are an indicator of the value of a new technology.
When looking at the companies with weight loss technology patents, Novo Nordisk is surprisingly not the leader, but comes in second with 33 forward citations, behind Zhongke Yikang. However, Novo Nordisk’s citations are more diverse—attracting attention from around the globe, not just within the company’s vicinity. This Novo Nordisk patent application for use in weight management and diabetes (WO-2019211451-A1) has been cited by 14 others in the past year, including Sanofi. And this patent for oral dosing of GLP-1 compounds (US-10278923-B2) has been cited by Eli Lilly. Not surprisingly, as the first mover, Novo Nordisk is paving the way for other inventors in the arena, which is a plus for the company’s competitive position. Of course, that position isn’t assured in the long term. In late 2024, an Eli Lilly study was released showing Zepbound to be more effective than Wegovy. So perhaps we’ll be seeing more Lilly citations in the future.
Top Applicants by Number of Citations
