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One of the most eye-opening exercises you can do is to look at an American beach photo from the 1960s or 1970s and compare it to a beach photo from today. In the early 1960s, less than 15% of Americans were obese. Today, the obesity rate in America is roughly 40%. What’s to blame for the soaring obesity rate? The widespread availability, addictiveness, and popularity of high-calorie, ultra-processed foods combined with an increase in sedentary lifestyle choices.
Obesity causes heart disease (the number one cause of death in the United States), type 2 diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure. Despite these well-known risks, most Americans are unwilling to make lifestyle changes such as eating unprocessed foods and exercising. Meanwhile, until recently, weight loss drugs were mostly scams, or worse, had numerous adverse side effects.
GLP-1: The Largest Blockbuster Drug Ever
Every handful of decades, a groundbreaking drug transforms the pharmaceutical industry. GLP-1 receptor agonists (such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro) are the closest the pharmaceutical industry has come to a panacea. By manipulating brain receptors, these drugs can reduce appetite and spur weight loss of 20% or more, thereby significantly reducing heart attack and other health risks.
Should you Buy Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly?
Pharma behemoths Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are the two undisputed leaders in a GLP-1 industry that JP Morgan expects to swell to $105 billion by the end of the decade. Although LLY and NVO dominate the market, their share prices are diverging significantly. Over the past year, LLY shares have gained 32.30% while NVO shares have plunged 28.40%.
The reason for the outperformance is that while NVO’s Ozempic/Wegovy drugs were first to market, Lilly’s tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound) has achieved more favorable results. The latest head-to-head trials show that Lilly’s dual agonist drug leads to ~20% weight loss, while NVO’s single agonist drug achieved ~13% weight loss.
Meanwhile, LLY’s Retratrutide (which cleared FDA phase 2 trials) has shown that a mind-boggling 72% of prediabetics reached normal blood sugar levels after taking the drug. While it’s a stretch to call a company like NVO with $14 billion in quarterly revenue a loser, LLY’s drug is far superior to NVO’s and is likely to continue to be the leader in the group.
GLP-1 Losers: Snack Foods & Alcohol
Snack food companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCO andMondelez are likely to struggle as more Americans adopt GLP-1s and junk food cravings decrease.
Bottom Line
With its best-in-breed GLP-1 drugs, Eli Lilly is beginning to cement itself as the dominant player in the massive GLP-1 market. In addition to LLY’s dominance, investors must recognize that the legacy snack industry is at risk of being disrupted.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights Eli Lilly, Novo, JP Morgan, Coca-Cola, PepsiCO and Mondelez
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – May 13, 2026 – Today, Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights Eli Lilly (LLY - Free Report) , Novo Nordisk (NVO - Free Report) , JP Morgan (JPM - Free Report) , Coca-Cola (KO - Free Report) , PepsiCO (PEP - Free Report) and Mondelez (MDLZ - Free Report) .
GLP-1 Wars: Winners & Losers
America’s Obesity Epidemic
One of the most eye-opening exercises you can do is to look at an American beach photo from the 1960s or 1970s and compare it to a beach photo from today. In the early 1960s, less than 15% of Americans were obese. Today, the obesity rate in America is roughly 40%. What’s to blame for the soaring obesity rate? The widespread availability, addictiveness, and popularity of high-calorie, ultra-processed foods combined with an increase in sedentary lifestyle choices.
Obesity causes heart disease (the number one cause of death in the United States), type 2 diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure. Despite these well-known risks, most Americans are unwilling to make lifestyle changes such as eating unprocessed foods and exercising. Meanwhile, until recently, weight loss drugs were mostly scams, or worse, had numerous adverse side effects.
GLP-1: The Largest Blockbuster Drug Ever
Every handful of decades, a groundbreaking drug transforms the pharmaceutical industry. GLP-1 receptor agonists (such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro) are the closest the pharmaceutical industry has come to a panacea. By manipulating brain receptors, these drugs can reduce appetite and spur weight loss of 20% or more, thereby significantly reducing heart attack and other health risks.
Should you Buy Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly?
Pharma behemoths Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are the two undisputed leaders in a GLP-1 industry that JP Morgan expects to swell to $105 billion by the end of the decade. Although LLY and NVO dominate the market, their share prices are diverging significantly. Over the past year, LLY shares have gained 32.30% while NVO shares have plunged 28.40%.
The reason for the outperformance is that while NVO’s Ozempic/Wegovy drugs were first to market, Lilly’s tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound) has achieved more favorable results. The latest head-to-head trials show that Lilly’s dual agonist drug leads to ~20% weight loss, while NVO’s single agonist drug achieved ~13% weight loss.
Meanwhile, LLY’s Retratrutide (which cleared FDA phase 2 trials) has shown that a mind-boggling 72% of prediabetics reached normal blood sugar levels after taking the drug. While it’s a stretch to call a company like NVO with $14 billion in quarterly revenue a loser, LLY’s drug is far superior to NVO’s and is likely to continue to be the leader in the group.
GLP-1 Losers: Snack Foods & Alcohol
Snack food companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCO andMondelez are likely to struggle as more Americans adopt GLP-1s and junk food cravings decrease.
Bottom Line
With its best-in-breed GLP-1 drugs, Eli Lilly is beginning to cement itself as the dominant player in the massive GLP-1 market. In addition to LLY’s dominance, investors must recognize that the legacy snack industry is at risk of being disrupted.
Why Haven't You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.
Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.
See Stocks Free >>
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.