GLP-1 Digest Podcast

The economics of DTC GLP-1 care are getting harder. Customer acquisition costs keeps rising, price is getting pushed down, and more patients are willing to switch provider for the cheapest pen. That leaves DTC companies with the worst possible equation: lower gross profit per month and a customer base full of switchers who may not stay long enough to pay back acquisition. In this episode, I speak...

Why do two people taking the same GLP-1 have radically different results? Part of the answer may be written in their DNA.Dr. Adam Auton is Vice President of Human Genetics at 23andMe and a senior author of the 2026 Nature study, “Genetic predictors of GLP1 receptor agonist weight loss and side effects.” The study examined 27,885 GLP-1 users to investigate whether genetic variation can help predict...

Peptides may already be a billion-dollar grey market. But if they move into legal compounding, can they become a real DTC healthcare business? I speak with Tim Gutwald, a healthtech lawyer with roughly 20 years of experience across telehealth, prescribing, compounding and DTC healthcare, about the three things founders need to get right: legitimate pharma-grade API, defensible clinical protocols &...

What happens to the food industry when millions of people start eating less? In this episode, I speak with Henry Dimbleby about the second- and third-order consequences of GLP-1s for food and beverage. Henry co-founded Leon, led the UK’s National Food Strategy, and is the author of Ravenous, one of the best books on how the modern food system learned to sell into human appetite. We discuss evolved...

Lord James Bethell is a former UK Health Minister who served as Minister for Life Sciences during Covid. He chairs Business for Health, sat on the IPPR Commission that called the UK "the sick man of Europe," and advises the private health sector through his role at Oviva. In this conversation, we discuss the widening gap between what the NHS aspires to deliver on GLP-1s and what it actua...

Dr. Beverly Tchang is a triple board-certified obesity medicine specialist, endocrinologist, and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell. She also advises Ro. We discuss the commercial and clinical questions shaping the future of GLP-1s. Time stamps: 0:00 REDEFINE-4: CagriSema vs tirzepatide 7:35 Why the open-label design matters 8:59 Where Novo Nordisk's pipeline goes next 1...

In this debut episode, Ashwin Sharma sits down with Professor Alex Miras, one of the world's leading obesity medicine specialists, to discuss the economics of GLP-1 medications. They cover: 1. Why the drug does the heavy lifting (not willpower) 2. Why price is the only barrier that matters 3. Why the muscle loss panic is probably a measurement problem 4. The oral GLP-1 revolution and what it means...