(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Despite success with injectable drugs pharma companies are investing heavily in tablets, long considered the holy grail of obesity medicine. This content was published on October 30, 2025 - 15:19 16 minutes Hannah Kuchler in London, Financial Times

During the First World War, women working in munitions factories began to dramatically lose weight. These so-called Canary Girls were handling a yellow toxic chemical known as DNP, which sped up their metabolisms and enabled their bodies to burn fats faster.

Soon, drug companies were selling DNP, which is short for 2,4-Dinitrophenol, in pill form. Such was the demand for a weight-loss drug that sales flourished even though in high doses the pills caused cataracts, skin lesions and even death.

External Content

From extracts of animal thyroids in the late 19th century to the fen-phen appetite suppressants of the 1990s, people's insatiable desire to slim down has led them to experiment with a multitude of inadvisable drugs.

The latest weight-loss drugs have transformed the way the pharmaceutical industry makes and sells medicine globally and in Switzerland. Billions of dollars are now being poured into developing drugs to fight obesity. Basel-based Roche is among the companies in the race to develop a weight-loss pill. Click here for more articles on Swiss pharma.

This box was added by Swissinfo/jdp.

At the same time, scientists have been labouring to create safe medicines to treat obesity. Demand has only grown more acute as the prevalence of adult obesity has risen, doubling since 1990 and causing huge damage to people's health and soaring costs for healthcare systems.

Scientists finally had a breakthrough with the weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound, injectables that were approved in the US in 2021 and 2023. But researchers have continued to hunt for pills, long considered the holy grail of weight-loss medicine due to the convenience of oral administration and because many people find injections off-putting.

The challenge is far harder than it sounds. Researchers have spent decades investigating ways to evade a gut that wants to break down the drugs and stop them before they work. In just the last couple of years, large pharma companies including Pfizer, Amgen and Roche have scrapped potential obesity pills after they disappointed in trials.

But this year the problem may have been solved. Both the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk and US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, the makers of Wegovy and Zepbound respectively, have reported positive trial results for their pills and expect to win approval for them within the next year. Sam Ulin, a partner at life sciences consultancy ClearView Healthcare Partners, says the pills represent a“critical step forward”.

More More Rising Swiss obesity levels: can new fat loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy help?

This content was published on May 31, 2024 The proportion of obese people in Switzerland has more than doubled over the last three decades.

Read more: Rising Swiss obesity levels: can new fat loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy

MENAFN30102025000210011054ID1110272381