Illustration: Olivier Heiligers
From the wide-open showroom floor of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, where the American Diabetes Association recently held its annual conference, the days of “living with overweight and obesity” (in clunky pharma-speak) seem numbered. Over the last decade, this conference has become for weight-loss drugs what Cannes is to the film industry: an opportunity for thousands of insiders to get a first glimpse — and to network. In 2018, Novo Nordisk premiered phase-three trial data for Ozempic at the conference, and in 2022, the drug that later became Zepbound took a bow. “You come here and nothing’s about diabetes anymore!” I heard one attendee observe, to which a pharma rep standing next to him quipped, “Forget diabetes!”
Of course, some aspects of the affair were, in fact, about diabetes, which affects 40 million Americans (as opposed to obesity, which affects about 100 million). Early detection tests and new automated insulin-delivery systems were on display alongside digitized patient avatars. One booth had a cartoon mascot who resembled some kind of molecule (I was later told he was, in fact, an antibody) standing outside it and waving. At another, reps handed out custom Marvel comic books featuring “Gluconaut,” a diabetic teenage superhero who battles space aliens using an insulin-delivery gadget. But the crowds — like the money flowing into the space — seemed to be most drawn to weight loss and obesity care.
