In just a few short years, new diabetes and weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have taken the world by storm. In the United States, 1 in 8 adults say they’ve tried one of these medications, which are known as GLP-1 drugs, and that number seems sure to rise as prices fall and new oral formulations hit the market.
Fluffy and Fido could be next.
On Tuesday, Okava Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco, announced that it has officially begun a pilot study of a GLP-1 drug for cats with obesity. The company is testing a novel approach: Instead of receiving weekly injections of the drugs, as has been common in human patients, the cats will get small, injectable implants, slightly larger than a microchip, that will slowly release the drug for as long as six months.
Results are expected next summer. If they are promising, they could represent the next frontier for a class of drugs that has upended human medicine, and a potentially transformative treatment option for millions of pets.
Some veterinarians have already begun administering human GLP-1 drugs, off label, to diabetic cats, and Okava is not the only company developing a product specifically for companion animals.
It’s unclear whether the drugs will be affordable, or even appealing, to pet owners.
For “so many people, their main way that they interact with and show their love to their pet often revolves around food,” said Dr. Maryanne Murphy, a veterinary nutritionist at the University of Tennessee.
Recent estimates suggest that roughly 60% of the nation’s cats and dogs have obesity; hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs have diabetes, said Dr. Chen Gilor, a veterinarian at the University of Florida, who is leading the study.
To succeed in the veterinary market, developers will need to address some of the practical challenges that have been associated with GLP-1 drugs, said Dr. Bethany Cummings, who studies GLP-1 at the University of California, Davis. One of the biggest ones, she noted, was “how to make it actually financially feasible.”
Okava is aiming to keep the price of its product at or below $100 a month, said Michael Klotsman, founder and CEO of the company, pointing out that some people pay more than that for high-end dog food. “We do think the market is there,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
