AbbVie Seeks To Grow Obesity Drug Portfolio — Retail Touts Drugmaker As Big Competition To Lilly
Synopsis
AbbVie already has a long acting amylin analog for the treatment of obesity in its pipeline.
- AbbVie CEO said that the company is now looking at candidates that provide sustained weight loss.
- The obesity drug market is currently dominated by GLP-1 drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Ozempic.
AbbVie (ABBV) chief executive officer Roopal Thakkar said on Wednesday that the company is looking to expand its obesity portfolio with candidates that help provide sustained weight loss.
The obesity drug market is currently dominated by GLP-1 drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Ozempic.
Thakkar said at the annual JP Morgan Healthcare conference that key for AbbVie is tolerability and durability of weight loss for patients that tend to “cycle off of these first-gen therapies.”
“Some of our data shows that only 30% or so patients are still taking these therapies after a year. So that's still, I would say, a critical aspect of our business development and licensing strategy,” Thakkar added.
Current Pipeline
AbbVie already has a long-acting amylin analog for the treatment of obesity in its pipeline. A long-acting amylin analog is a drug designed to mimic the natural hormone amylin, which signals fullness and slows digestion, used for weight management in obesity and type 2 diabetes.
AbbVie licensed the drug from Gubra A/S in March 2025, marking its entry into the obesity segment. The drug is currently in early stage trials.
"We have the longer acting amylin. We like the tolerability profile of that mechanism, but we are interested in building that out further," Thakkar said on Wednesday.
AbbVie’s chief commercial officer Jeff Stewart also noted that the company wants to play in the “super dynamic” obesity market.
How Did Stocktwits Users React?
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around ABBV stock jumped from ‘bearish’ to ‘neutral’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume stayed at ‘extremely high’ levels.
A Stocktwits user opined that AbbVie could become a big contender to Lilly with the right assets.
ABBV stock gained 26% over the past 12 months.
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