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Using GLP-1s drug injections for weight loss has become one of the latest ways some big names in the market are shedding extra pounds. Elon Musk recently tweeted about how using Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy helped him lose weight. Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin recently told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that using a different version of Novo Nordisk’s same drug, Ozempic, which is most commonly associated with diabetes care, made him much less hungry.

“The weekly shot is amazing. … I started this about a year ago, it’s been life changing for me,” Rubin said. 

Social media influencer Remi Bader said she was prescribed Ozempic after experiencing issues with insulin and weight gain.

GLP-1s — which stands for glucagon-like peptide-1 — are receptor agonists that work by imitating the effects of the GLP-1 hormone, activating GLP-1 receptors inside of the pancreas and producing more insulin inside the body. The insulin helps lower blood sugar levels, which can be helpful in managing Type 2 diabetes. GLP-1s also have been found to help with weight loss as they make individuals who use them feel fuller for a longer period of time.

It’s not only the GLP-1 drugs that are helping celebrities and the wealthy, but also their ability to receive high quality clinical and obesity care that helps them lose the weight, according to Zachariah Reitano, the co-founder and CEO of telehealth company Ro. That’s why his company has launched a program to offer GLP-1 drugs and corresponding medical care to individuals struggling with obesity or weight loss issues.

“I think what we’re able to do now is leverage all of the technology that we have to give everyone access to something that only a few people have access to now,” Reitano said in a recent interview with CNBC. 

Ro’s Body Program offers personalized treatment for GLP-1s and weight management. The year-long program uses a combination of GLP-1s and personal coaching. In clinical trials, these drugs have helped participants lose an average of 15% of their weight over a year.

Pairing personalized coaching with GLP-1s is the key to effective weight loss treatment, Reitano said, and helping patients maximize their results.

“I think what’s really important is, yes, it’s access to the medication … but once they have the medication, we want to hold their hand throughout the entire process, and we have built the technology to be able to do that at scale,” Reitano said.

With the Ro Body Program, participants are first diagnosed, entering information about their health history, any weight loss and obesity challenges, and lifestyle and diet, and then are sent an at-home lab test to obtain measures of A1C blood sugar test, cholesterol and kidney function, among other health metrics. Based on their test results and an initial consultation, a doctor may prescribe patients to start off with a low dosage of GLP-1s that is slowly ramped up over time to meet the desired dosage amount.

Diabetes, obesity and a nationwide drug controversy

Ozempic – the brand of semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, marketed for Type 2 diabetes treatment – recently made headlines for a nationwide shortage as its use as a weight loss drug gained popularity. When Wegovy, the brand semaglutide marketed for weight management, began experiencing shortages, some using the medicine were prescribed off-brand Ozempic, makin the drug much harder to find. Many with Type 2 diabetes that relied on Ozempic to treat it have been left scrambling to find the medication. There have also been reports of people looking for weight loss help turning to multiple other drug solutions as a result of difficulty finding GLP-1 drugs.

Both obesity and Type 2 diabetes affect a large number of Americans. According to the CDC, the adult obesity rate in the United States was 41.9% in 2017, and about one in 10 people in the United States have Type 2 diabetes. Reitano said it is important to recognize both obesity and diabetes as diseases that deserve proper treatment.

“I think what we’re actually going to see over the next 5 to 10 years is a weight-centric approach to metabolic health,” Reitano said, who noted in a subsequent interview with CNBC’s “Mad Money” on Thursday night that his father’s personal experience with GLP-1 drugs was a motivating factor for his business decision. “I’ve seen GLPs have a tremendous impact on my dad,” he said.

He told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the once a week injections do three “very, very important things” when comes to obesity. They help regulate sugar levels; they help regulate appetite; and they slow the passage of food from the stomach to the small intestine. This combination of controls has helped patients in clinical studies lose on average 15% of body weight over a year.

Novo Nordisk, Ozempic and Wegovy’s manufacturer, told NBC News last week the company is still experiencing supply chain issues that will last through the month, though access to some dosages of Ozempic for patients with Type 2 diabetes has improved.

The GLP-1 drug Wegovy for weight issues or obesity is approved for individuals with a BMI of 26-plus and co-morbidities, or those with a BMI of 30-plus.

A new real-time approach to weight management

Reitano said it should not be an either/or scenario involving diabetes management of weight loss and that will change over the next decade.

“If we saw obesity as a disease, and we’re both focused on preventing it but once it happens treating it and treating it as a disease, I think we’re going to see an entirely different approach,” he said.

Reitano said the weight loss and obesity management program fits within his company’s broader goal of changing the way patients receive medical care and reach health goals, from doctor visits to pharmacy and ongoing health issue management.

“High-quality obesity care is an important part of it,” he told Cramer. “Patients can’t just receive these medications and be left to their own devices.”

In addition to shipping the GLP-1 drug to a patient’s home, the Ro Body program tracks patients in real-time with remote monitoring. That is facilitated by a cellular-connected smart scale also sent to the patient which tracks weight and sends data to an app so medical professionals can tweak dosages of the drugs to make sure the patient is receiving the right dose to achieve the weight loss results they want. Patients also receive one-to-one coaching with nurses over the year-long period and up to 24 telehealth visits with a doctor.

“The speed with which we can communicate with patients, update their plans and really be there for them and guide them through this experience, and have that serve as a really strong compliment to their overall primary care, is one of the things I think we’re really excited about,” Reitano said in a recent phone interview with CNBC.

Price of these drugs, though, is an issue, with Wegovy costing as much as $1,700 a month without insurance. Reitano said Ro helps guide individuals through the insurance process and to get these drugs at the lowest price, but he conceded in his “Mad Money” interview that pricing in this pharmaceutical niche “can be challenging for patients.”

The Ro Body Program is the latest addition to Ro’s health care offerings. The company, which ranked No. 38 on the 2022 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, started off selling men’s health care products, helping to treat issues such as erectile dysfunction and hair loss, and has since expanded to provide multiple at-home services including pharmaceutical and fertility treatments. 

CNBC is now accepting nominations for the 2023 Disruptor 50 list – our 11th annual look at the most innovative venture-backed companies. Learn more about eligibility and how to submit an application by Friday, Feb. 17.

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Nintendo profit plunges 69% as it cuts forecast for sales of ageing Switch console

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Nintendo profit plunges 69% as it cuts forecast for sales of ageing Switch console

Mario poses at the “SUPER NINTENDO WORLD” welcome celebration at Universal Studios Hollywood on February 16, 2023 in Universal City, California.

Rodin Eckenroth | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Nintendo on Tuesday cut forecast for Switch sales for its fiscal year ending March 2025 as demand wanes for its ageing console.

The Japanese gaming giant said it now expects to sell 12.5 million units of the Switch over the course of the period. That’s down from a previous forecast of 13.5 million units.

Nintendo has been contending with fading demand for its flagship Switch console, which is now more than seven years old.

Investors are waiting for news surrounding a successor to the Switch, which they hope will re-energize Nintendo’s gaming business. In the past, the company said that the Switch successor will be announced in its current fiscal year, which ends in March 2025.

Nintendo also cut full fiscal year forecasts for sales and operating profit. The company said it now expects sales of 1.28 trillion yen versus a previous forecast of 1.35 trillion yen. The operating profit outlook for the period was slashed from 400 billion yen to 360 billion yen.

Here’s how Nintendo did in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 versus LSEG estimates:

  • Revenue: 276.7 billion Japanese yen ($1.8 billion), compared with 273.34 billion yen expected.
  • Net profit: 27.7 billion yen, versus 48.06 billion yen expected.

Revenue fell 17% year-on-year. Net profit plunged just over 69% versus the same period last year.

Super Mario, Zelda boost fading

The Switch is Nintendo’s second best-selling console in history, behind the Nintendo DS. Despite the recent fall in sales, Nintendo has prolonged the console’s appeal for an extended period of time since its launch in 2017 by relying on its recognizable characters.

In its last fiscal year, Nintendo managed to reinvigorate sales of the Switch thanks to the the success of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” and the highly anticipated release of the “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” game, which underscored the appeal of its iconic characters.

But that effect is fading.

On Tuesday, Nintendo noted the boost that the company received in the first half of its last fiscal year, but said “there were no such special factors in the first half of this fiscal year, and with Nintendo Switch now in its eighth year since launch, unit sales of both hardware and software decreased significantly year-on-year.”

Sales of the Switch totaled 4.72 units in the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with 6.84 million units in the same period of last year.

In the face of falling sales, Nintendo has tried to license out its intellectual property for use everywhere, from movies to theme parks. A new Super Mario movie is slated for release in 2026.

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Meta extends ban on new political ads past Election Day

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Meta extends ban on new political ads past Election Day

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg plans to visit South Korea, scheduling key meetings during the trip, according to a statement by Meta on Wednesday, which did not provide further details. Reportedly, Zuckerberg is anticipated to meet with Samsung Electronics chairman Jay Y. Lee later this month to discuss AI chip supply and other generative AI issues, as per the South Korean newspaper Seoul Economic Daily, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Alex Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Meta extended its ban on new political ads on Facebook and Instagram past Election Day in the U.S.

The social media giant announced the political ads policy update on Monday, extending its ban on new political ads past Tuesday, the original end date for the restriction period.

Meta did not specify the day it will lift the restriction, saying only that the ad blocking will continue “until later this week.” The company did not say why it extended the political advertising restriction period.

The company announced in August that any political ads that ran at least once before Oct. 29 would still be allowed to run on Meta’s services in the final week before Election Day. Other political ads will not be allowed to run.

Organization with eligible ads will have “limited editing capabilities” while the restriction is still in place, Meta said. Those advertisers will be allowed to make scheduling, budgeting and bidding-related changes to their political ads, Meta said.

Meta enacted the same policy in 2020. The company said the policy is in place because “we recognize there may not be enough time to contest new claims made in ads.”

Google-parent Alphabet announced a similar ad policy update last month, saying it would pause ads relating to U.S. elections from running in the U.S. after the last polls close on Tuesday. Alphabet said it would notify advertisers when it lifts the pause.

Nearly $1 billion has been spent on political ads over the last week, with the bulk of the money spent on down-ballot races throughout the U.S., according to data from advertising analytics firm AdImpact.

Watch: Tech still investing big in AI development despite few breakout products.

Tech still investing big in AI development despite few breakout products

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Jeff Bezos and OpenAI invest in robot startup Physical Intelligence at $2.4 billion valuation

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Jeff Bezos and OpenAI invest in robot startup Physical Intelligence at .4 billion valuation

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2024 (L), and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 2, 2021.

Reuters

Physical Intelligence, a robot startup based in San Francisco, has raised $400 million at a $2.4 billion post-money valuation, the company confirmed Monday to CNBC.

Investors included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, Thrive Capital and Lux Capital, a Physical Intelligence spokesperson said. Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital are also listed as investors on the company’s website.

Physical Intelligence’s new valuation is about six times that of its March seed round, which reportedly came in at $70 million with a $400 million valuation. Its current roster of employees includes alumni of Tesla, Google DeepMind and X.

The startup focuses on “bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world,” per its website, and it aims to do this by developing large-scale artificial intelligence models and algorithms to power robots. The startup spent the past eight months developing a “general-purpose” AI model for robots, the company wrote in a blog post. Physical Intelligence hopes that model will be the first step toward its ultimate goal of developing artificial general intelligence. AGI is a term used to describe AI technology that equals or surpasses human intellect on a wide range of tasks.

The news comes days after OpenAI launched a search feature within ChatGPT, its viral chatbot, that positions the AI startup to better compete with search engines like GoogleMicrosoft‘s Bing and Perplexity. Last month, OpenAI also closed its latest funding round at a valuation of $157 billion.

Physical Intelligence’s vision is that one day users can “simply ask robots to perform any task they want, just like they can ask large language models (LLMs) and chatbot assistants,” the startup wrote in the blog post. In case studies, Physical Intelligence details how its tech could allow a robot to do laundry, bus tables or assemble a box.

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