Lexaria Bioscience provides GLP-1 industry update

Lexaria Bioscience (LEXX) provides the following glucagon-like peptide-1 industry update. It is no surprise that Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster drug, semaglutide, which is sold under the brand names Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus, is the bestselling diabetes and weight loss drug in the world today. Novo has, for one hundred years, been the world’s leading diabetes drug and research company, after receiving the extraction and purification techniques from the Canadian doctor who discovered insulin in 1921. They owned six of the world’s top-15 bestselling diabetes drugs, for combined sales in 2022 of US$16.87 billion for diabetes applications alone, and in just the first half of 2024 generated $8.3 billion from sales of the blockbuster drug, Ozempic(R). Lexaria’s strategy is to continue developing and optimizing our wholly-owned DehydraTECH drug delivery platform for application in the GLP-1 space, positioning it as a “must-have” technology for larger companies seeking to develop, defend or increase their cash flows from existing drugs as well as to be utilized in early stages of drug development for next-gen GLP-1 drugs due to hit the market in 2026, 2027, and beyond. An ‘arm’s race’ of sorts has begun amongst the world’s pharmaceutical companies once it became apparent that the GLP-1 drugs responsible for life-changing outcomes in diabetes management were also responsible for impressive weight-loss benefits. Close behind Novo is Eli Lilly with its own drug, tirzepatide, which is branded as both Mounjaro and Zepbound. Because of its dual action properties, working on both GLP-1 receptors and also glucose-dependant insulinotropic polypeptide pathways, tirzepatide is even more effective at weight loss and is expected by some analysts to reach $50 billion in global total annual revenue. Global pharmaceutical companies are competing against each other in the GLP-1 space utilizing three main strategies: Developing or acquiring their own new GLP-1 and related molecules under traditional drug development techniques; Developing or acquiring technologies and intellectual property that improves the delivery pharmacokinetics of GLP-1 in attempts to increase drug absorption and decrease drug side effects; and, Developing or acquiring related technologies and IP that can act as platforms for improved drug performance and patient outcomes.