Quoth the Raven
· QTR’s Fringe Finance
· 30 июня 2026, 10:46
· ⏱ 10 мин чтения
| Читать в Substack ↗
Резюме
The article argues that entrepreneurial execution, not just invention, creates market value, using Ozempic's 30-year delay as a case study. Pfizer's failure to see GLP-1's potential beyond diabetes allowed Novo Nordisk to capture a $190 billion market as a second mover. This implies that investors should focus on companies that operationalize ideas rather than first movers.
•GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are taken by one in eight US adults, creating a $190 billion market.
•Pfizer abandoned a GLP-1 compound in 1991 despite promising trial data, believing no injectable diabetes therapy beyond insulin would succeed.
•The compound's license was acquired by Novo Nordisk in 1992, leading to semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) decades later.
•The article uses historical examples (Tesla/Westinghouse, Howe/Singer, Meucci/Bell, Ford) to illustrate that second-mover advantage often arises from superior execution, not just avoiding first-mover mistakes.
•Pfizer failed to imagine the drug's value for non-diabetic weight loss, missing the true value proposition.
•The article emphasizes that an idea's value is realized only through scaling, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing.