Weight-loss drugs may turn fat cats into svelte Ozempets

In just a few short years, new diabetes and weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have taken the world by storm.

- Emily Anthes

In the United States, one in eight adults say they have tried one of these medications, which are known as GLP-1 drugs, and that number seems sure to rise as prices fall and new oral formulations hit the market.

Fluffy and Fido could be next. On Dec 2, Okava Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco, is set to announce that it has officially begun a pilot study of a GLP-1 drug for cats with obesity.

The company is testing a novel approach: Instead of receiving weekly injections of the drugs, as has been common in human patients, the cats will get injectable implants, slightly larger than a microchip, that will slowly release the drug for as long as six months.

"You insert that capsule under the skin, and then you come back six months later, and the cat has lost the weight," said Dr Chen Gilor, a veterinarian at the University of Florida, who is leading the study. "It is like magic."

Results are expected next summer. If they are promising, they could represent the next frontier for a class of drugs that has upended human medicine, and a potentially transformative treatment option for millions of pets.

Some veterinarians have already begun administering human GLP-1 drugs, off-label, to diabetic cats, and Okava is not the only company developing a product specifically for companion animals.

Still, the success of GLP-1 drugs in veterinary medicine is hardly preordained. Large clinical trials are still needed, experts said, and it is unclear whether the drugs will be affordable, or even appealing, to pet owners.

For so many people, the main way they interact with and show their love to their pet often revolves around food, said Dr Maryanne Murphy, a veterinary nutritionist at the University of Tennessee.

Will pet owners pay for a drug that makes their animals eat less?