Health
Two Dozen Patients Are Worth Billions in Pharma’s Hot Market
- Small obesity studies add $93 billion to market values
- Frenzied reaction reflects size of weight-loss market
Photographer: Gianluca Colla/Bloomberg
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The 25 people in Roche Holding AG’s obesity pill study would barely be enough to field both sides of a soccer match. Yet their weight loss added $16.8 billion to the Swiss drugmaker’s market value in a day, only the latest in a series of big share moves based on success in tiny trials.
Positive results in the earliest stages of development have driven about $93 billion in market value gains this year for obesity-drug makers, according to Bloomberg calculations. That optimism is due to the size of the obesity market, with shareholders buying into a chance at even a small slice of a pie that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says could reach $130 billion by 2030.