How Big Can This $8 Billion-Plus Diabetes Drug Class Get?

Pharmaceutical companies keep making drugs targeting the glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) receptor easier for diabetics to take.

The first GLP-1 drug approved in 2005, Amylin Pharmaceuticals' and Eli Lilly's (NYSE:LLY) Byetta, had to be injected twice a day. Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) made a big jump five years later with Victoza, which had to be injected only once a day. Amylin and Eli Lilly followed in 2012 with Bydureon, a once-weekly version of the active ingredient in Byetta. Since then, Novo Nordisk (Ozempic) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) (Tanzeum) have come out with once-weekly versions and Eli Lilly also added a second once-weekly offering, Trulicity, to its medicine cabinet.