The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention reported that approximately 59% of U.S. dogs brought to vets in 2022 were also overweight or obese.
Cats are especially tricky to treat. You cannot walk a cat. And many of them, as any owner knows, have a strong opinion about their food. "He just gobbles down all the food," said Amy, a Dallas cat owner whose five-year-old cat Felix is overweight.
Carrying extra weight doesn't just affect a cat's appearance - it can also reduce its lifespan and put pressure on its joints and heart.
That frustration is now catching the attention of drug companies. The same class of drugs that turned Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly into giants for human weight loss - GLP-1s - is being tested for pets.
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A once-weekly GLP-1 treatment for overweight and obese cats is being studied in a Cornell University clinical trial sponsored by Akston Biosciences. About 70 overweight or obese cats will be evaluated over roughly three months. Meanwhile, a San Francisco biotech called OKAVA Pharmaceuticals is testing a long-acting implant that delivers the drug continuously for up to six months. They call it the "MEOW-1" trial.
"Feline obesity is one of the most common yet least effectively treated health issues in veterinary medicine," Todd Zion, CEO of Akston Biosciences, made that statement in November when his firm revealed the trial.
The U.S. pet economy is huge - roughly $200 billion in total. By 2030, that number is expected to hit $240 billion. Pet food alone could reach $65 billion in spending by 2026, according to Morgan Stanley.
A big reason for that growth: cat ownership is increasing about three times faster than dog ownership, according to Nestlé. That same company is leaning hard into "Personalized Health" products for pets - things that target digestive health, aging, and longer life. Nestlé claims its newer nutritional products can extend a cat's healthy lifespan by more than a year.
Morgan Stanley analyst Simeon Gutman describes the shift as "an expansion from premiumization into medicalization, rather than owners abandoning premium food." In plain English: owners are spending more on keeping pets healthy, not just on fancier kibble.
The catch: Gutman also warns that the hype around pet GLP-1s might be overblown. "The most overhyped part is the assumption that pet obesity drugs will replicate the human GLP-1 market in terms of penetration and pricing," he said via email.
Amy, the cat owner in Dallas, put it plainly: "If they can make one for my cat, that would be great."
For investors, the lesson is less about betting on one drug and more about watching where the health trend goes. Pet owners are spending more every year on their animals, and the line between human medicine and pet medicine is getting blurrier. That shift could reward a lot of companies - but it will take time, and a few furry test subjects, to know for sure.
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