By: Natalie Dillon & Simran Suri
Read our full investment thesis here.
As consumer investors with a passion for healthcare, it’s only natural that we dove into the biggest trend in consumer health and culture — GLP-1s, or the “miracle weight loss drug.” We’ve seen over $1B of venture capital pour into dedicated GLP-1 solutions since the beginning of 2023. The majority of these companies focus on drug access through online and compounding pharmacies. We’ve also seen multiple incumbent digital health platforms pivot to GLP-1s, including Noom, Omada Health, Ro and HIMS.
Where we see less attention and focus is the consumer experience when patients stop taking GLP-1s. There is a high risk of regaining weight, but studies show that 68% of GLP-1 users stop taking the medicines after just one year due to high costs (which can sometimes hit over $1,000 per month), pending surgeries, adverse side effects, pregnancy and more. We decided to get under the hood by talking to a myriad of experts ranging from physicians to payers, and identified 3 key learnings:
- Patients can successfully deprescribe if they’re paying attention to more than just fitness and nutrition, as there are multiple different signals that indicate successful weight maintenance, including mental health and sleep.
- Existing businesses focused on weight loss, whether new entrant or incumbent, aren’t well-equipped to manage deprescription, as their business models are either primarily focused on providing GLP-1 prescriptions or are too hands-off to accurately track their patients’ health
- There are medical reasons for deprescription related to potential pregnancy and fertility, as well as disordered eating. These largely go under-recognized by companies building in the space.
As more consumers pay out-of-pocket for GLP-1 prescriptions from online and compounding pharmacies, they’re increasingly left to navigate their weight loss journey alone, with little-to-no support for dealing with side effects, which can range from tangible (digestive issues and muscle degradation) to intangible (depression due to lack of hunger impacting social life or frustration when trying to buy new clothes post-weight loss). While there are digital health platforms focused on weight loss for diabetes patients or general fitness and nutrition, there is no trusted consumer brand to help GLP-1 users navigate their weight loss journey in its entirety today.
At Maveron, we’re actively looking to meet with teams that are helping consumers safely and effectively manage their side effects and deprescribe from GLP-1s. We’re particularly interested in platforms that are taking a more personalized approach to care coordination by looking outside of just weight-loss-driven fitness and nutrition, and into broader lifestyle and wellness. We believe these platforms have the potential to demonstrate strong unit economics, as consumers will need to adhere to care and lifestyle modifications post-deprescription in order to maintain their weight loss.
You can read more about our investment thesis here. If you’re building in the GLP-1 space, we would love to meet you. Please reach out to Natalie (natalie@maveron.com) and Simran (simran@maveron.com)!
