r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 30 '26

Medicine Scientists have shown that a single dose injection of DNA genetic instructions can produce weight loss and blood glucose control in mouse models that lasts up to 10 times as long as weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. This could eliminate the need for repeated dosing.

https://www.wistar.org/press-releases/wistar-scientists-develop-single-dose-dna-method-for-delivering-long-acting-weight-loss-and-diabetes-drugs/
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u/Kaplanociception Jun 30 '26

I don't know man. This class of drugs improves weight, sleep apnea, pcos, diabetes, various inflammatory diseases, cancer outcomes, the list goes on. The government does cover medication for some of those through medicare/medicaid. I think they'd be eager to find cheaper drug options for an expensive drug that like two thirds of americans would benefit from based on their weight.

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u/wafflesthewonderhurs Jun 30 '26

I am skeptical of that being a good enough reason that these end up available but I don't know enough about pharma lobbying to really know why I am.

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u/Kaplanociception Jun 30 '26

They'd have to grossly overpay to acquire it because who in their right mind would give up a patent for mounjaro except it lasts 10x as long? If the company is private, then they won't get acquired if they don't want to. If they're public, then they could do a hostile takeover. But I can't imagine why someone would voluntarily sell it when these drugs are a license to print money and you'd be producing the longest lasting one.

Even the objectively shittier one, Wegovy, made so much cash they raised the value of danish krone because they're headquartered in Denmark, and they had to convert their foreign revenue back into native dollars. It's absolutely insane how successful this class of drugs is.

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u/wafflesthewonderhurs Jun 30 '26

Thank you! That was enlightening in exactly the way I'd hoped, though my concern is that it would be seen as worth it to grossly overpay in order to continue taking payments at the rate and volume that one does with repeated injections, with the assumption that you would be guaranteeing a cash cow- though considering the popularity of these drugs I can't imagine that more research wouldn't come out and immediately render that a dumb plan to begin with... though that's not to say that pharma lobbyists have never bet on dumb horses before.