Obesity drug search trends

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Europe is experiencing a steady increase in obesity rates. Overweight and obesity affect almost 60% of adults and nearly one in three children (‎29% of boys and 27% of girls)‎ in the WHO European Region. Living with overweight or obesity has been identified as a serious public health challenge as it is a major determinant of death and disability.¹  

Therefore it doesn’t come as a surprise that healthcare providers in Europe are increasingly seeking pharmacological interventions to complement lifestyle modifications in managing obesity. Drugs that offer efficacy, safety, and convenience are highly sought after to address the diverse needs of patients. 

Intensifying competition

The landscape of obesity drugs is progressing quickly, with promising advancements in therapeutic modalities. The market for obesity drugs in Europe is witnessing heightened competition as pharmaceutical companies race to develop novel therapies to address this pressing health concern.

Obesity drugs approved in the EU

As there is an increasing number of players entering the arena, we have decided to dig deeper into approved drugs in the European Union and check in which markets the cost is reimbursed by the health insurer.²

Obesity drug search

Now let’s look at some numbers related to obesity drug search in our Mediately App.³ First, we have checked how obesity drug prescribers search for these drugs and what the trends are. We have focused on searches done by drug prescribers: diabetologists, endocrinologists, internal medicine physicians, cardiologists, angiologists and general practitioners. 

Graph 1: Quarterly obesity drug search among drug prescribers in 12 European countries, where Mediately App is available. 

According to our data, Ozempic seems to be the most often searched drug in all countries among obesity drugs with a big peak in Q1 of 2023. But as Mounjaro has just recently got approved for obesity we wanted to see what is happening between these two competitors since the beginning of 2024. 

Graph 2: Weekly drug search comparison for Ozempic and Mounjaro among drug prescribers in 12 European countries, where Mediately App is available. 

SmPC chapters views

Now we know, what are the search trends among the competitors. But let’s look at what drug info they check in the Mediately App. They are most interested in the pricing, reflecting the concerns about affordability for their patients that a lot of doctors have, and are a topic of discussion among health authorities across the world.

Graph 3: SmPC chapters within obesity drug visited in Q1 2024 among obesity drug prescribers in 12 European countries, where Mediately App is available. 

Obesity drug search in Italy 

The Italian market has the highest number of obesity drugs, where the cost is reimbursed by the health insurer. We can see that from more than 4.000 searches done in Q1 2024, more than half were for Ozempic. Competitors follow a similar trend also among other countries. 

Graph 4: Obesity drug search in Italy from January 2023 until March 2024, done by drug prescribers.

Conclusion 

This is just a sneak peek and reasons for search volume can depend on many factors. We will look into this after some time to see where this healthcare trend will go and how drugs from this field will enter different markets. If you are interested in additional information like search by country or specific specialization, you are welcome to contact us. We can look further into the data or provide a similar report for your drug. 

The most commonly used anthropometric method to measure obesity is Body Mass Index (BMI). We have looked into BMI Calculations in the Mediately App and prepared a report. Even though you might expect certain medical specialties to have higher BMI averages, our findings might just challenge those expectations.

Sources:

1. WHO, WHO European Regional Obesity Report 2022.
2. EMA, European Medicines Agency & local drug sources.
3. Mediately Insights.