Which Stock Will Dominate the Weight Management Market Through 2030?

The market for weight management medicines has been the hottest therapeutic area in the past two years

Plenty of companies are now trying to make waves in this space

But there is one company that's almost certain to dominate it at least through the end of the decade, and that's Eli Lilly (LLY -2

The pharmaceutical giant has far too much going its way

And even beyond this area, there are other excellent reasons to invest in the stock

Only one notable competitor Analysts predict that the weight management space will experience significant growth over the next five years

Eli Lilly's success in this area is attracting plenty of competitors, and the number of potential medicines in development has ballooned recently

However, Eli Lilly should only have one serious competitor through the end of the decade, and that will be none other than Novo Nordisk

The two have fought for market in obesity care for decades

Image source: Getty Images

Novo Nordisk launched semaglutide, the active ingredient in the anti-obesity medicine Wegovy, before Eli Lilly's tirzepatide (the active ingredient in Zepbound)

They are both generating mouthwatering sales

Further, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk also have incredibly deep pipelines in this area

It's hard to find a single weight loss candidate in the entire industry that has duced better clinical trial results than those being developed by either Eli Lilly or Novo Nordisk

However, the former arguably has the edge over its longtime competitor, and should keep it through the next five years

Here are four reasons why

First, tirzepatide ved more effective than semaglutide in helping patients lose weight in clinical trials that directly pitted the two medications against each other

Third, Eli Lilly has had several other clinical successes

It posted strong phase 3 results for orforglin, an investigational oral GLP-1 medicine

It has an incredibly mising candidate in retatrutide, a potential triple agonist -- that is, it mimics the action of three gut hormones: GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon

That's one more than tirzepatide, which was already a breakthrough, being the first dual GLP-1/GIP agonist

Retatrutide also performed well in midstage studies

Fourth, Eli Lilly has also made a move that could imve its already strong spects in weight management

The company is partnering with Camurus, a Sweden-based pharmaceutical company whose FluidCrystal nology is designed for the long-acting dery of injectable therapies

Eli Lilly's goal is to utilize this nology with its own treatments to address one of their shortcomings

Once patients discontinue weight loss medications, they tend to regain the weight

Is Eli Lilly stock a buy

Eli Lilly isn't just a diabetes or a weight loss company

One of the pharmaceutical giant's strengths is that it has been able to develop breakthrough medicines in other fields in recent years, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), the area that was long known as the graveyard of investigational therapies, because the overwhelming majority of companies that tried to develop treatments for AD failed

Eli Lilly's financial results also remain incredibly strong

Some might point to Eli Lilly's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) of 35. 3, which is much higher than the healthcare industry's average of 15

However, the stock is worth the premium considering its revenue and earnings are growing much faster than most similarly sized peers, and it also has a pipeline that looks far more mising than most other pharmaceutical giants

Even at current levels, Eli Lilly's s are scooping up and holding onto for a long time

Sper Junior Bakiny has positions in Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk

The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.