The business with weight loss injections is booming. The US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is in the starting blocks with its own preparation – and also wants to conquer the European market from Germany.
The US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly wants to build a new plant in Alzey, Rhineland-Palatinate. The company announced this today. Eli Lilly wants to produce its Zepbound weight loss syringe there for the German and European markets, among other things. The group, which is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, wants to invest $2.5 billion in the plant, and up to 1,000 people will be employed there from 2027.
Eli Lilly’s investment should be worth it. The market for weight loss injections is growing rapidly. The Danish manufacturer Novo Nordisk has become the most valuable European company with its weight loss preparation Wegovy, ahead of Nestlé and the luxury goods group LVMH.
Even warnings from doctors about previously unknown or unresearched side effects of the weight loss preparations have not affected their success so far. Analysts at the US investment bank Goldman Sachs estimate that sales of weight loss supplements could increase sixteenfold by 2030: from the current around six billion to 100 billion dollars. The estimate is based, among other things, on the number of people who are eligible for treatment with the preparations because of obesity.
Competition with Novo Nordisk
With its new product Zepbound, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly wants to challenge its competitor Novo Nordisk for market leadership. According to Eli Lilly, Zepbound leads to greater weight loss even faster than the competing product Wegovy. Goldman Sachs analysts expect that both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk will become the dominant manufacturers of this type of drug.
The German manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim is also trying to benefit from the hype surrounding hormone-based weight loss preparations. In August, the company announced that its active ingredient survodutide was being tested in Phase III registration studies.
Zepbound is still waiting for approval in the EU
Zepbound is currently not available in the EU and the USA, but is ready to enter the market. It is expected to be available for purchase in the US at the end of the year after the US Food and Drug Administration granted approval in early November.
In the EU, the Commission still has to approve the weight loss preparation. However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has already spoken out in favor of approval. The Eli Lilly drug “Mounjaro”, which has the same active ingredient as “Zepbound” – tirzepatide – is already approved as a type 2 diabetes drug in both the EU and the USA.
First manufacturer of commercial insulin
Eli Lilly is following traditional paths with its new hormone-based weight loss injection. Exactly 100 years ago, the American company brought the first commercial insulin preparation onto the market. The diabetes drug Trulicity was the manufacturer’s top-selling product last year, followed by Verzenios, a drug for advanced breast cancer.
In the past there had been repeated criticism of the group. The New York Times accused Eli Lilly of downplaying the health risks of its best-selling schizophrenia drug, Zyprexa, for several years. The company vehemently resisted this. However, in 2009, the company received the largest individual corporate fine in US history to date, amounting to $515 million. It was about unauthorized advertising for Zyprexa.
Lilly in Germany has so far only had a small location
The investment by the US group, which operates in this country as “Lilly Deutschland”, strengthens Germany as a pharmaceutical location: Up until now, the company had just 1,000 employees in this country. There was no production or research at all in Germany. However, the only German location to date, Bad Homburg, is, according to the company, “one of the leading European locations for conducting clinical studies”. Germany is considered one of the most important sales markets for the pharmaceutical industry.
The managing director of the “House of Pharma” at the Goethe University Frankfurt, Otto Quintus Russe, praises Eli Lilly as an innovative company. There are a number of promising drugs in the pipeline. “The company relies heavily on research and has made a number of right decisions in the recent past.” This is also reflected in the stock market price: it has increased almost sixfold in the last six years.
For Russe, settling in Germany is still a big surprise because “recently, Germany hasn’t necessarily stood out for its good location conditions for the pharmaceutical industry.” He hopes this will give positive signals, said Russe.