The GLP-1 era has changed what patients and investors think is possible. But it has also exposed the part of obesity medicine that is far harder to “engineer” than a headline percentage: people have to stay on treatment long enough for the biology to stick.
Start with the scale. The World Health Organization estimates that in 2022, one in eight people globally were living with obesity, and about 890 million adults met the definition. This is not a boutique indication; it is the kind of chronic disease category that reshapes primary care.
Now look at the friction.
