Hello and welcome to Careviser, the weekly newsletter that cuts through the healthcare noise with a single focus: productization of the latest research and tech breakthroughs.
Obesity is on the rise, especially among kids. It increases the risk of developing major diseases such as diabetes. It has been framed as a will-power issue when it’s actually a disease that is still poorly understood.
Harnischfeger, F., Dando, R. Obesity-induced taste dysfunction, and its implications for dietary intake. Int J Obes 45, 1644–1655 (2021).
🗝️ Why it matters: It is well known that obesity is linked to food consumption. Fat and sugar taste good which is why humans love eating food high in fat and sugar. Exercise is a way to counteract excessive food consumption, but it has limited success on its own in the long run.
🔎 The study: This review aims to summarize existing evidence that there is a dysfunction in taste found in obese people.
✅ Findings:
There are five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, umami and bitter
Several studies show that there is a link between the intensity of perceived sweetness and the consumption of sweet food. People who are more sensitive to sweet taste seem to eat less cakes and candy.
Taste sensitivity can change over time as behaviors evolve. People reducing their intake of simple sugars seem to become more sensitive to sweet taste. The same can be said of salty or fatty food: for instance, the more people eat food high in sodium, the less intense is their perception of its taste. It’s like a drug when you always need to up your consumption to feel something.
There are also studies looking at psychological perception of food: they found that participants valuing sweet food as something hedonistic tended to eat more sweet food.
Focusing on obese people, several studies have shown that they suffer from a deficit in taste. They struggle to identify fat, salty or even umami taste compared to average participants. They are also less sensitive to sweet taste.
A few studies in animals have looked at how concretely obesity changes taste buds. It seems to disrupt the balance of taste buds. A recent study on humans also found changes which affect taste bud development and maintenance. Looking at reward mechanisms in the brain, it also seems that obese subjects have brain reward curcuits that are less responsive.
🚀 Opportunities ahead: This review opens the door for new treatments options for obese patients focused on the taste system.
While I could not identify new treatments targeting taste dysfunction for obese people, there is a new weight loss drug that was just launched by Novo Nordisk under the brand “Wegovy”. Wegovy is semaglutine which is actually a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue. It was previously sold for diabetes indication only and received the FDA approval for the weight loss indication this summer. The EMA approval is still pending. Wegovy was approved after a phase 3 clinical study which showed that weekly injections led to a 15% weight loss during a 64 weeks period. These results are superior to existing weight loss drugs on the market.
Novo Nordisk has already launched a trial for an oral version of Wegovy which would be way more convenient for patients than weekly injections. They reportedly have hundreds of sales reps already hitting the ground in the US to promote the new weight loss indication.
At the same time, there is already a DTC company out of YC selling weight loss telemedicine with Wegovy: they’re called Fella and they’re dedicated to men.
🤗 The pitch: Weight loss services are mostly focused on women when men suffer from obesity as much as women. Wegovy is a game changer for weight loss, and Fella can market it as a “FDA-approved peptide drug”, which sounds fancy and reminds men of peptide supplements and creams they may use to build muscle at the gym.
📈 The traction: Fella is only available in Texas. They launched about a month ago. They only cover men who have commercial/ employer insurance. They offer a guarantee that the patient will pay less than US$30 per month for the medication and everything else is covered. They’ve done a good job at making sure their product is affordable for a wide range of men. They seem to be good at B2C too as one of their founders has built a good following on Instagram on weight-loss topics. Initially focused on CBT for weight loss, they seem to have pivoted to a combination of CBT + medication when Wegovy was approved by the FDA. Talk about good timing!
If you are interested in new obesity medication currently at an early stage of development, check out:
EraCal: is a spin-off from Harvard and the University of Zurich. Based on research on compounds that decrease the appetites of zebrafish larvae, they aim to develop new appetite-suppression drugs for humans without the side effects of existing drugs
Xeno Biosciences aims to develop a drug that mimics the gut changes triggered by gastric surgery that they believe lead to weight loss more than the surgical procedure itself. They raised a US$ 7.2 series A last month.
That’s a wrap for today! Don’t hesitate to reply to this email with comments, I read and answer all emails :)
Marie