Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are expanding supplies of weight-loss drugs

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Good evening! It's still difficult to find a very popular combination of weight loss and diabetes medications in the United States. The dominant manufacturers of these treatments, Eli Lilly And Novo Nordiskare making progress toward changing that.

But Wall Street seems to have more encouragement than the other.

The drugmakers shared presentation updates when they announced their first-quarter financial results. Demand for weight-loss and diabetes drugs has far exceeded supply over the past year, forcing the two companies to invest heavily to expand manufacturing.

Investors cheered Eli Lilly after the company raised its full-year revenue forecast by $2 billion, partly on confidence in ramping up production of weight loss drug Zepbound, diabetes treatment Mounjaro, and similar drugs for the rest of the year. The company refers to these treatments as incretin medications, which mimic certain gut hormones to suppress a person's appetite and regulate blood sugar.

“Now that we're four months into the year, we have greater visibility into that, at these capacity points and feel more confident,” Anat Ashkenazi, Eli Lilly's chief financial officer, told investors during an April 30 earnings call.

She noted that Eli Lilly has several manufacturing sites either “under construction or under construction,” including two in North Carolina, two in Indiana, one in Ireland and one in Germany. There is also a seventh location that the company recently acquired from Nexus Pharmaceuticals.

Ashkenazi also highlighted the recent approval and upcoming launch of a new delivery device for Mounjaro called the KwikPen in Europe and the UK, which she said will “open up new supply capacity” for some international markets. This is because Eli Lilly has used this device for many years to produce insulin, so the company can leverage existing manufacturing resources to make more other incretin drugs.

The KwikPen is a single four-dose pen that covers a month's treatment. Patients using current self-injectors for weight loss and diabetes medications go through four different pens per month. When asked if the company would launch the device in the US, Eli Lilly CEO David Rex told investors: “We haven't ruled it out in other jurisdictions.”

Ashkenazi said Eli Lilly expects the supply of Zibond, Mongaro and other incretin drugs to remain “very tight” in the near-to-medium term as demand remains high. But she noted that Eli Lilly expects its production of salable doses of incretin drugs to be at least 1.5 times higher later this year than in the second half of 2023 — a target the company first set in February.

On the day Eli Lilly reported earnings, the company's shares jumped more than 5% on guidance updates and higher supplies.

“While Lilly continues to see demand for incretin outpace supply for the foreseeable future, the company is clearly making progress in increasing its capacity, and that should translate into accelerating volume growth at “Round the year.” last week.

Meanwhile, investors seemed less impressed with Novo Nordisk last week. The company's shares fell more than 2% on May 2 after announcing first-quarter results.

Novo Nordisk executives said on a media call that day that the company was gradually ramping up production of low-dose, or “starter” doses, of the weight-loss drug Wegovy in the United States after restricting its supply of it last May to cope with demand.

About 27,000 new patients in the United States are now starting weekly injections every week, CEO Lars Frørgaard Jørgensen said on a media call. This is up from 5,000 each week in December.

“This is a really cool volume ramp, just like we were planning,” Jorgensen said.

He added that the company will continue to enhance supply of Wegovy and its diabetes counterpart Ozempic throughout the rest of the year. The company's primary focus is “ensuring continuity of care for patients who have already started treatment,” Jorgensen said.

However, Novo Nordisk beat Wall Street estimates for sales of its weight-loss drug Wegovy, even as supply and prescriptions for the drug increased during the quarter. Wegovy's revenue more than doubled to 9.38 billion Danish kroner (US$1.35 billion) during the period, falling short of analysts' expectations of 10.55 billion Danish kroner (US$1.52 billion), according to FactSet.

That's because prices for Wegovy and Ozempic fell in the first quarter as volumes and competition increased, Carsten Munk Knudsen, the company's chief financial officer, told analysts by phone.

He added that this trend will continue during the rest of the year. U.S. list prices for Wegovy and Ozempic are still around $1,000 per month, but Novo is offering rebates and rebates to insurers to expand coverage to more patients.

We'll continue to monitor how the viewing landscape changes throughout the rest of the year. Stay tuned to our coverage.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

apple The heart-monitoring technology received FDA approval on May 3.

The agency announced that the Apple Watch's atrial fibrillation history feature could be used in clinical studies through its Medical Device Development Kit program. The FDA said Apple Advantage is the first digital health technology to qualify under the program.

The FDA program identifies technologies that are reliable enough to be used in the context of scientific research. It is a voluntary pathway, and tools and solutions that qualify under the MDDT program are then used to help evaluate new medical devices.

Apple's atrial fibrillation history technology will serve as a biomarker test to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of cardiac ablation devices, which are used to treat arrhythmias.

Atrial fibrillation, often called AFib, is a type of arrhythmia that occurs when an organ's upper chambers beat “chaotically,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Atrial fibrillation (AFib) often causes rapid, turbulent heartbeats, can lead to blood clots and increases the risk of stroke or heart failure.

This condition affects individuals differently, and sometimes people do not experience any symptoms. However, patients with atrial fibrillation usually require treatment such as medications, therapy or surgeries to prevent outcomes such as stroke, the Mayo Clinic reported.

Apple's Atrial Fibrillation Log feature allows users to track the amount of time their hearts show signs of atrial fibrillation over an extended period, according to the company's website. This feature is not intended for use by people under the age of 22, and users need to wear their Apple Watch for at least 12 hours a day, five days a week to receive estimates.

Users can also share their data with their doctors to help determine appropriate treatments and next steps for them.

AFib History was initially approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) two years ago, and Apple has step-by-step instructions online for patients interested in getting the setting.

Apple did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas, and pitches to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.