Hi, it’s Cam in Boston. Companies are jumping into the red-hot GLP-1 market with a surprising new target: pets. But first…
America’s fat pets
Weight-loss drugs like Zepbound and Wegovy are flying off pharmacy shelves, bringing riches to drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Now, a few companies are looking to replicate that success — in household pets.
Okava Pharmaceuticals and Vivani Medical are jointly developing an implant to deliver GLP-1 drugs in cats. Pet food maker Better Choice bought Aimia Pet Healthco in February, a move to create weight-loss medications supplemented by its protein-based products. “People will spend pretty close to anything on their animal,” says Better Choice Chairman Michael Young, a Wegovy user himself. Giving your pet a drug that you’re already taking would “not be a far leap.”
About 60% of Americans’ cats and dogs are either overweight or obese according to a 2022 survey by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. While there is always the option of feeding your pets less, the prospect of an unhappy underfed animal is not always appealing, particularly when the owner is already enjoying the benefits of anti-obesity drugs, as some 6% of American adults are, according to a poll by KFF.
In May 2024, Okava Pharmaceuticals, a biotech startup looking to transform FDA-approved drugs in humans for use in pets, announced results of its GLP-1 implant in cats in a small study. Its implant treatment, designed by Vivani Medical, helped cats lose at least 5% of their body weight over 112 days. “Feline obesity can lead to diabetes, heart disease, and ultimately, shortened lifespans,” says Michael Klotsman, the Chief Executive Officer of Okava, adding that it is “one of the greatest issues in veterinary medicine today.”
Some vets we spoke to expressed concern regarding the study’s limited sample size and absence of controls. Zach Bradley, a Veterinarian at Cats Limited Veterinary Hospital in West Hartford, Connecticut, also notes that injections from vaccines or catheters cause feline-specific side effects, like tumors.
In an interview, Klotsman says Okava’s study “was really designed to test whether or not we were getting good drug release” out of the implant,” and that future studies will be larger.
In fact, there was an earlier drug to treat obese dogs. In 2007, Pfizer got FDA approval for Slentrol, the first prescription weight-loss drug for dogs. However, after Pfizer spun off its Zoetis animal-health subsidiary, the therapy was discontinued due to limited demand. “Pet owners did not perceive obesity in their pets as a medical condition that needed treatment,” a Zoetis spokesperson said in an e-mail to Bloomberg News.
Nonetheless, firms are still hunting for treatments for obese pets. Better Choice bought R&D company Aimia Pet Healthco to develop therapies that replicate the benefits of drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro, according to the company’s statement. Better Choice, which has taken inspiration from a history of recasting human drugs for animals, plans to spend as much as $1.5 million on a trial for a pet treat-based GLP-1 delivery mechanism with hopes of later partnering with a larger pharma company, Young says.
Still, some veterinarians are skeptical. “I would lean far more towards exhausting every traditional way of a pet losing weight with diet, exercise, looking for underlying endocrine issues,” says Jeanne Ficociello, a Veterinarian specializing in small animal internal medicine at VCA Animal Hospitals in South Weymouth, Massachusetts. “I’d be far more inclined to go that route before I considered a GLP-1.”
Companies’ attempts to develop weight-loss drugs for our furry friends begs the question of who’s to blame. “The pet is not opening the can or the container,” says George Fahey Jr., Professor Emeritus of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“The owner is feeding the pet too much food, that’s the source of the problem.” — Cam Baker
REFERENCE: Bloomberg, 12 JUN 2024; Cam Baker