Time Just Put Its “Seal of Approval” on Our Top Wealth Strategy for 2024
Welcome to the Year of Weight-Loss Drugs ...
In this issue of Investing Daily Dose (IDD):
⭐Meet a Real Influencer⭐
The most powerful storylines lead to the most powerful profits.
And one of the storylines we’re following is featured in the latest issue of Time, which profiled 100 of “the world’s most influential people.”
Landing in the “Innovators” category was Dave Ricks, the CEO of Eli Lilly & Co. LLY 0.00%↑.
Our first issue of IDD labeled 2024 the “Year of Weight-Loss Drugs,” with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk NVO 0.00%↑ leading the pack.
Getting to that front-of-the-pack position demands leadership – leadership that gets you recognized as one of the most influential people … not just in medicine … but in the world.
Leadership like Lilly’s CEO just keeps flashing.
In a 2022 Barron’s profile, Ricks says there are three crucial points he considers for effectively running Eli Lilly:
1. What is the company good at?
2. What will make a big difference in healthcare?
3. And where is the science breaking?
Ricks says that last point means: Don’t be too late or too early with a new drug.
“If you’re early, it’s way too hard,” he told Barron’s. “You have to solve all these other problems to get to a product.”
Although competitor Novo had a two-year head start with its weight-loss drug Wegovy (approved in 2021), Eli is now nipping at Novo’s heals with its weight-loss drug, Zepbound, approved in 2023.
Ricks doesn’t have to worry about being too late, as Zepbound sales are expected to reach $1.9 billion this year and climb to $12 billion in just a few years.
Bill’s Investing Takeaway
“I talk about ‘storylines’ to pursue. Well, I’m calling this Wealth-Builder tale: ‘The Hunt For the Next Blockbuster.’
As I know from my decades of work as a reporter and stock picker, finding that ‘Next Blockbuster’ isn’t easy. Blockbuster drugs are long shots for companies to create. And an even longer shot for investors to find and get in on.
That makes this a rare opportunity.
A rare wealth opportunity.
And you’re getting in on the very start.
Goldman Sachs recently predicted the market for weight-loss drugs would zoom from about $19 billion last year to $100 billion by 2030.
You’ll see those sales start ramping up here in 2024, as the percentage of U.S. employer health plans covering weight-loss drugs jumps from 25% to a projected 43%.
And Lilly and Novo have a major vested interest in maximizing the revenue from all their new discoveries.
In a strategy known as ‘label expansion,’ these companies develop a drug to treat one malady — but have a massive incentive to uncover new uses for each new drug they get approved.
We’re talking years of profits here. And you want to get in now.”