Earlier this week, Eli Lilly announced it was teaming up with telehealth provider Ro to boost access to Zepbound, one of its weight-loss medications. Now, the pharmaceuticals giant is revealing more plans for its blockbuster drug, noting it wants to start testing Zepbound in 2025 as a treatment not only for weight loss but for alcohol and drug addiction, including reliance on nicotine, reports Quartz. Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said Tuesday that this move would make the drugmaker the first to test such GLP-1 drugs specifically for addiction treatment, per Stat News.
"These medicines, we think and we've aimed to prove, can be useful for other things we don't think about connected to weight," Ricks said at at an Economic Club event in DC. "These are often called anti-hedonics, so they are reducing that desire cycle." Zepbound is similar to Mounjaro, a drug also made by Eli Lilly and that also claims tirzepatide as its active ingredient, and to Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy brands, which use semaglutide. Quartz notes that demand for these weight-loss meds has transformed the two companies "into the largest pharma companies in the world."
The outlet notes that multiple retrospective studies have already shown ties between GLP-1 drugs and lower risk of opioid and alcohol abuse. Anecdotal evidence has also supported this link, especially regarding reliance on tobacco. "Lilly continues to evaluate future development options for its medicines but has not announced development plans for the potential use of GLP-1s for additional indications at this point in time," a company rep tells Quartz. (More Eli Lilly stories.)
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