SECAUCUS, NJ. — A consumer may one day walk into a physician’s office or a medical spa and ask how much weight they could lose for $1,000, said Jennifer Cooper, president of Enova Science, a private label dietary and nutritional supplement contract manufacturer.

“What they’re really saying is, ‘I can afford to be on this medication for two months,’ and the reality is you start at really low doses,” she said April 9 at SupplySide Connect in Secaucus. “You don’t get to the clinical dose if you’re stepping up every month until you’ve been on the medication for like three months.”

Consumers may cycle on and off GLP-1 medications because of financial constraints. These consumers present opportunities for companies outside the pharmaceutical industry if the businesses provide products that assist the consumers when they are off the medications, she said.

Companies should be careful with claims, however. Cooper said she is “disturbed” by the number of products that claim to mimic GLP-1 medications, such as being promoted as a “natural Ozempic.”

“We certainly can mimic some of the mechanisms of action, but we’ll never be able, from a natural perspective, to completely mimic taking injections,” she said.

Supply chain issues have kept pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly busy – for now.

“It is inevitable that they are going to turn an eye to the fact that people are taking their intellectual property and the claims around that and usurping and infringing on their business,” Cooper said. “So, they’ll petition the FDA. I think it’s a certainty that at some point we’ll see some regulatory oversight regarding claims that say GLP-1.

“I’m not saying anybody is doing anything wrong right now, but if you’re in love with this idea, then you should make hay while the sun shines.”

Users of GLP-1 medications often lose lean muscle mass, which presents an opportunity for food and supplement companies to offer products formulated to increase muscle mass. Pharmaceutical companies are working on the lean muscle mass issue as well.

“They are in an all-fire hurry to solve that problem so that insurers and physicians can feel better about subscribing (the medications),” Cooper said.

Expect the GLP-1 era to stick around, she said.

“I think my message for (companies) who have a toe in the water or are waiting for this to cycle past and for things to go back to the way they used to be is they’re not ever going back to the way they used to be,” Cooper said.