How digital health companies are capitalizing on the GLP-1 boom
Patent protection for Wegovy — Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight loss drug, which contains the second generation GLP-1 active ingredient and is at least twice as effective — is expected to expire by the decade’s end.
Michael Siluk | UCG | Getty Images
For Gray Beard, a kindergarten teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, losing weight had become a grueling task. She’d tried five different programs in her life and never found lasting results.
Her luck started to change last year, when she saw a promotion on Instagram for the Ro Body Program, a new offering from online health startup Ro. The ad said eligible patients could get prescribed GLP-1s, the buzzy class of obesity treatments that’s turned into a booming business in recent years.
Beard, 47, had previously sought a GLP-1 prescription, but her doctor “wouldn’t even try” to get it approved, assuming her insurance company would reject coverage of the costly medication, she said. GLP-1s cost roughly $1,000 per month before insurance and other rebates.
Customers of Ro’s Body Program could get prescribed a GLP-1, such as Novo Nordisk ‘s weight loss drug Wegovy or diabetes treatment Ozempic, and meet monthly with a doctor. They also get access to an educational curriculum, 24/7 messaging, one-on-one coaching with nurses and assistance with navigating insurance complexities.
Beard was 210 pounds when she first started the program early last year. She’s since lost 40 pounds and serves as an ambassador for Ro. She pays $30 per month for the GLP-1 treatment, after insurance coverage, along with a $145 monthly fee for the program. And she has no plans to leave.
“I’m fine if I have to stay on it forever,” Beard told CNBC.
Ro, founded as Roman in 2017, is part of a growing crop of digital health companies aiming to capitalize on the soaring demand for GLP-1s by building programs and services for users on top of the medications. The opportunity could be massive. Goldman Sachs analysts expect 15 million U.S. adults to be on anti-obesity drugs by 2030, and predict the industry could reach $100 billion in annual revenue by that time.
In addition to Wegovy and Ozempic, the GLP-1 class includes Eli Lilly’s highly popular weight loss drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro. GLP-1s mimic a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar.
Like Ro, other non-drugmakers, including Calibrate, Sesame, Omada Health, Noom, Hims & Hers and even telehealth industry veterans Teladoc Health and WeightWatchers, have rolled out offerings geared toward patients on GLP-1s, or have expanded their services to include the popular medications.
Meanwhile, investors are cheering them on.
Shares of Ro competitor Hims & Hers popped 28% on May 20 after the company said it’s now offering compounded GLP-1 injections in addition to its oral medication kits. CEO Andrew Dudum told CNBC the company is confident customers will be able to access a consistent supply of the injections.
Supply shortages are one of the big hurdles for companies in the market, as spiking demand has made it difficult for many patients to access the treatments. There’s also been a rise of counterfeit products, according to the World Health Organization, which said in January that the combination of shortages and the “increased circulation of falsified versions” is particularly problematic for patients with Type 2 diabetes who count on the medication for disease management.
That’s not slowing down industry executives like Ro founder Zachariah Reitano.
Ro didn’t start out as a company focused on weight loss. Reitano launched it to sell treatments online for erectile dysfunction before moving on to hair loss and other pathologies.
In 2020, Ro switched to obesity management and, after Wegovy was approved by the Food and Drug Adminstration the following year, Reitano said patient inquiries started pouring in by the “tens of thousands.”
Now, Ro is shoveling marketing dollars into its GLP-1 program — from digital ads, TV commercials and posters lining subway stations, to influencer campaigns featuring patients such as Beard.
Reitano told CNBC that GLP-1s are like a “jetpack for positive behavior change.” Patients tend to exercise more, eat healthier and see around a 30% reduction in calorie intake, he said.
“Once you get a little bit of momentum, once you lose a little bit of weight, you’re sleeping better, you have more energy, you can go to the gym, you can eat better and then that’s that positive flywheel,” Reitano said.
Ro has raised around $1 billion in funding to date, according to PitchBook. The company was valued at about $7 billion as of early 2022, though that was before a steep drop in tech stocks and collapse in the initial public offering market forced many startups to dramatically lower their valuations.
WeightWatchers joins the market
WeightWatchers has been in business for over 60 years and is the name in the U.S. perhaps most synonymous with weight loss programs.
In December, the company entered the GLP-1 market, with a behavioral-support program that’s available through its general membership subscription, starting at $23 per month. Members can participate whether they get a GLP-1 prescription through their primary care physician or through the new WeightWatchers Clinic, introduced alongside the behavioral program.
Because GLP-1s suppress appetites, WeightWatchers quickly learned that it needed an entirely new program for people taking the meds, said Gary Foster, the company’s chief scientific officer.
“They don’t need help with what to do for dessert or how to deal with the bread on the table at a restaurant,” Foster said in an interview. “That’s like 50-60% of what we would do for people without meds.”
Clinic members who participate in the GLP-1 program have to pay an additional fee — starting at $99 a month — for exclusive access to registered dieticians, fitness professionals and care team coordinators.
WeightWatchers said in its first-quarter results earlier this month that 87,000 people had subscribed to the clinic, although not all of them are taking GLP-1s. The company expects to have between 140,000 and 160,000 clinic subscribers by year-end, the report said.
It hasn’t been enough to change WeightWatchers’ trajectory. The stock has plummeted 83% this year on concerns about the company’s debt load, its core weight loss business and Oprah Winfrey’s announced departure from the board in February.
With respect to GLP-1s and their impact on weight loss, “the landscape is quite exciting,” Foster said. “I think we should all celebrate and really be delighted by the fact that there are more tools in the toolbox to help people trying to manage their weight.”
Kim Gradwell with an Ozempic injection needle at her home in Dudley, North Tyneside, Britain, October 31, 2023.
Lee Smith | Reuters
Jennifer VanGilder, a 51-year-old economics professor at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, said she’d tried countless methods to lose weight, from strict diets to services like the defunct Jenny Craig. She was considering bariatric surgery before she came across a program from digital health startup Calibrate.
Calibrate, founded in 2019, was one of the first companies to treat obesity by combining GLP-1s with one-on-one coaching. The program costs $199 a month, which doesn’t include the medication, and requires an initial three-month-long commitment.
VanGilder signed up nearly four years ago and started taking the weekly diabetes injection Ozempic specifically for weight loss. She later switched to Wegovy.
VanGilder said GLP-1s aren’t a miracle drug, but by taking them and putting in the work, she said she lost around 100 pounds of her 242-pound weight. The big difference between Calibrate and prior weight loss efforts, VanGilder said, is that she doesn’t feel like she’s dieting.
“That’s why I’ve been able to stay on it for as long as I have,” VanGilder said.
Calibrate is one of the only companies to regularly release reports detailing the results of its weight loss program. The company’s 2024 report examined data from roughly 16,000 members who completed at least one year of the program as of October, along with a smaller group of patients who continued for longer.
Average weight loss among patients was 16.2% at 12 months in the program, 17.3% at 18 months and 17.9% at 24 months, according to the report.
“Our data of proven outcomes shows that we can deliver faster, better results than some of the leading GLP-1 clinical trials,” said Dr. Kristin Baier, Calibrate’s vice president of clinical development, in an interview.
But Calibrate has hit some major speed bumps in the past couple years.
After raising $100 million in venture funding during the peak of the tech market in 2021, the combination of supply shortages, insurance challenges and the broader market swoon forced the startup to lay off hundreds of employees between 2022 and 2023. The company was acquired in October at a discount by private equity firm Madryn Asset Management.
Calibrate CEO Rob MacNaughton said the sector was “ill equipped” to manage the “dramatic demand that led to, at some point, severely, severely constrained supply” of GLP-1s last year.
Under new ownership, the company continues to promote its GLP-1 service, which its said is important because the drugs themselves aren’t sufficient.
“GLP-1 medications, while they are safe and effective, they are a tool,” said Baier. “They are not the entire treatment.”
Options for patients
Ro’s Reitano said shortages of Wegovy and other GLP-1s last year prompted his company to temporarily pause advertising. Ro also dolled out refunds and credits to patients in its program who weren’t able to pick up their medication within 30 days of receiving a prescription, he said.
Reitano said Ro has built up “both technical tools and operations” to help patients navigate supply issues. That includes transferring prescriptions to different pharmacies based on their GLP-1 supply and proximity to a patient. From July to August, the company made 50,000 phone calls to pharmacies across the U.S. to coordinate those transfers, Reitano said.
Ro has also expanded its medication offerings, adding Zepbound following its U.S. approval in November.
“We added that to our formulary, and that’s really when we started advertising again because we had confidence that we’d be able to get patients an option,” Reitano said.
Insurance problems persist, though.
Some employers have dropped weight loss drugs from their plans due to the costs associated with covering the treatments for thousands of patients. The federal Medicare program by law can’t cover weight loss drugs unless the prescription is for another approved health benefit, such as diabetes or cardiovascular health.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk offer commercial savings card programs that aim to expand access to their GLP-1s. Eli Lilly allows people with insurance coverage for Zepbound to pay as low as $25 for a monthly prescription. And users who can’t get insurance coverage, may be able to get the drug for as low as $550 a month.
The high costs and difficult access led Hims & Hers to initially stay out of the GLP-1 market even after launching its new weight loss program in December
Dr. Craig Primack, senior vice president of weight management at Hims, said the company decided to offer treatment regimens based on drugs that had been studied and prescribed for decades.
“We’re going to have people, for one reason or another, who either don’t want an injection at this point, or are just looking for a different alternative,” Primack told CNBC in an interview in March. “These are tools we’ve been using in our field for a long, long time.”
Last week, Hims said customers can now access compounded GLP-1 medications via a prescription from a licensed health-care provider on the platform. Hims said it plans to make branded GLP-1 medications available to its customers once supply is consistently available. The company’s oral medication kits start at $79 a month, and its compounded GLP-1 injections will start at $199 a month.
Dudum said the company has partnered with one of the largest generic manufacturers in the U.S. and has a certain degree of exclusivity with the facility. The manufacturer has FDA oversight, he said.
Even before Hims introduced compounded GLP-1 injections to its weight loss offering, the company said it expects the program will generate more than $100 million in revenue by the end of 2025.
Beard, the Ro customer, has had to make some changes since starting the Body Program. She initially took Wegovy with no out-of-pocket costs, thanks to her insurance coverage and a savings card program from Novo Nordisk. But she hit a plateau on the drug, so she switched to Zepbound.
While there have been some hiccups along the way, Beard says the program has largely been a “seamless” addition to her day-to-day life, and that she no longer thinks about food all the time. She even got a family member to enroll.
“We’re not having any bad side effects, so why go off of it?” she said, adding “it’s helped both of us get to the weight we want.”
Three years since the arrival of OpenAI‘s ChatGPT, more devices featuring generative AI technology have hit the market in time for the 2025 holiday shopping season, with many offering deals for Black Friday.
Shoppers can pick from more advanced smart glasses, smart speakers with genAI and a pendant AI friend that acts as a confidant.
These latest gizmos come from megacaps like Amazon, Alphabet and Meta and smaller players like Friend and Plaud.
Despite the arrival of this new wave of products, reviews for many of the devices are mixed, and nothing has separated itself as a clear leader of the pack.
That’s in part because much of the spending on artificial intelligence has been focused on other things.
Since ChatGPT was released in late 2022, the bulk of the tech industry has reoriented itself to prioritize building out large language models in a race to reach artificial general intelligence, or AI with the capabilities that are on par with, or surpass, humans.
Thus far, much of the development in Silicon Valley has focused on AI apps, including chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude, image generators like Google’s Nano Banana or feeds for AI-generated short-form videos like OpenAI’s Sora. All things people can access on their existing smartphones without a spiffy new gadget.
But the world of AI hardware is growing fast.
If you’re in the market for the latest AI devices, here’s what’s available to snag this holiday season.
Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Echo, announces the Echo Studio and Echo Dot Max during an Amazon event showcasing new products in New York City, U.S., September 30, 2025.
Kylie Cooper | Reuters
Alexa+ Echo speakers
Amazon wants to make sure its Alexa voice assistant and Echo smart speakers don’t get left behind in the era of genAI.
The company unveiled Alexa+ in February, promising a smarter, more conversational and personalized version of its 11-year-old digital assistant. In September, it followed up with a new set of Echo speakers and displays, which are the first devices to come with Alexa+ out of the box.
The lineup includes a $100 Echo Dot Max, $180 Echo Show, $220 Echo Studio and $220 Echo Show 11.
The Echo Dot Max is an entry-level, all-purpose smart speaker, while the Echo Studio is larger, pricier and offers better sound quality. The main difference between Amazon’s smart displays, the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11, is the touchscreen size.
All of the devices have improved sensors, speakers and microphones.
Amazon is offering 11% off the cost of the Echo Show 11 and 10% off the Echo Dot Max as part of its Black Friday promotions.
With the upgrades, Amazon is aiming to have users engage more often with the devices than their predecessors. Consumers frequently complained that Alexa had grown outdated while the Echo devices offered little utility beyond setting timers, spouting weather forecasts, playing music and controlling smart home accessories, like turning lights on and off.
Amazon’s recent Alexa ad tries to paint a different picture.
Comedian Pete Davidson strolls through his kitchen when an Alexa-equipped Echo Show announces, unprompted, that the “Coffee’s on, and your Uber is on its way.” Davidson then casually banters back and forth with Alexa about his preferred nickname.
The interaction is meant to showcase a few of Alexa+’s biggest selling points — users don’t have to repeat a so-called “wake word” after every command, allowing the conversation to flow more naturally.
The devices can also now connect to external services to take actions on users’ behalf. As of now, Alexa+ can book an Uber or OpenTable reservation, generate a song via Suno, plan a trip through Fodor’s, schedule a repairman visit and purchase concert tickets through Ticketmaster. Amazon has said it expects to add more capabilities soon.
Alexa+ isn’t yet available to the general public. Consumers have to wait to receive Early Access or purchase a new Echo model to use it.
Amazon is offering Alexa+ for free to users with Early Access, but at some point, the company will begin charging non-Prime members $19.99 a month for the service.
The company is also making moves in wearables.
Amazon in July announced plans to acquire AI company Bee for an undisclosed amount, indicating that it could have more hardware infused with the technology in the works. Bee is known for its $50 wristband that uses AI and microphones to listen to and analyze conversations, then provide to-do lists, summaries and reminders for everyday tasks.
— Annie Palmer
A person holds Google Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro Fold mobile phones during the ‘Made by Google’ event, organised to introduce the latest additions to Google’s Pixel portfolio of devices, in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., August 20, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Google’s AI-powered Pixel 10 series
Although the Gemini-powered Google Home Speaker won’t roll out until the spring, Alphabet did deliver some generative AI tech this year.
Launched in August, the Pixel 10 smartphones thoroughly integrate Google’s AI into several features, such as live translation, text-based photo editing and the built-in Gemini assistant.
The baseline Pixel 10 starts at $799, while the Pro lineup includes the $999 Pixel 10 Pro, the $1,199 Pixel Pro XL and the $1,799 Pixel 10 Pro Fold. The Pro line offers a higher quality camera and display, as well as additional video features.
Among the AI products is “Magic Cue,” which connects data across different apps to surface relevant information and suggest helpful actions. For example, if a user receives a message asking about a dinner reservation’s location, Magic Cue can find the answer from the calendar app.
For snapping pictures, Google provides an AI “Camera Coach,” which scans the scene of a photo and offers recommendations about framing, lighting and other techniques to improve the image.
The Pixel 10 Pro phones come with a one-year subscription to Google’s “AI Pro” plan, which typically costs $19 per month and offers multiple AI tools, including writing assistant NotebookLM and video generator Veo 3.
All the Pixel 10 models are currently on sale for $200 to $300 off until Dec. 6, except for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which has a $300 markdown until Dec. 2, the company said.
— Jaures Yip
The Meta Ray-Ban Display AI glasses at Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Meta’s AI-infused Ray-Ban smart glasses
Meta’s partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, originally inked in 2019, has spawned a surprise hit in the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that both companies are keen to boast about.
With the Meta AI digital assistant, users can command the camera-equipped glasses to take photos, play tunes and to answer questions about nearby landmarks.
In September, the two companies debuted the latest version of the glasses, dubbed Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2).
The new model has double the battery life of its predecessor and an improved camera. It costs $379, which is $80 than the prior version.
Meta and Luxottica this year also launched two smart glasses aimed at athletes under the Oakley brand.
The $399 Oakley Meta HSTN glasses are pitched toward casual athletes who want to take photos while playing sports like golf, while the $499 Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses are geared toward the action-sports crowd, like skiers.
The Vanguard glasses feature a flashier wraparound design and two buttons on the frames’ underside that lets helmet-wearing athletes easily take photos and videos and perform other actions.
For those willing to spend big money and test new technology, Meta and Luxottica also rolled out the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses in September.
They are the first glasses Meta sells to the public that include a display, albeit a small one, in just one of the lenses. The display is intended to show users small bits of information, like navigation directions. The glasses also include a wristband that utilizes neural technology so users can command the device with gestures like rotating one’s fingers to adjust volume.
Buying the $799 glasses, though, is not easy.
Meta requires that people sign-up for in-person demos at stores like Best Buy and LensCrafters before buying the product, and the company warns that “availability varies by store, so you may not be able to purchase a pair immediately after your demo.”
Early reviews for the display glasses have been mixed.
Some reviewers have praised the device’s color display, camera and innovative wristband. Still, others have criticized its high price and have said its lack of apps limit functionality.
Meta is currently offering a few Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for some of its various AI-powered smart glasses that will last until Dec. 1.
People can save 20% on all versions of the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 1) at Best Buy, Target, Amazon and also at Meta’s website and the Ray-Ban website and stores. Meta is also offering 20% off the cost of prescription lenses for people who buy the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses from its website.
— Jonathan Vanian
Friend AI Pendant
Source: Friend
The AI friend you wear around as a pendant
Most AI chatbots want to make the user more productive. The makers of this smart pendant want AI to be your friend.
Users wear Friend, as the product is aptly called, around their necks while the $129 device listens to the conversations happening around it.
Friend’s chatbot is powered by Google Gemini, and it offers commentary on the user’s conversation and life. Those comments appear as notifications through the device’s corresponding smartphone app.
For example, when one reviewer played a new Taylor Swift song for her AI friend, the device commented through a notification that it didn’t “think it’s bad at all” and “pretty typical for pop.”
The device is at the center of the societal debate about the rise of AI.
Friend plastered a subway station in New York this fall with ads that suggested that the pendant was better than a real friend, promising that it “will never bail on our dinner plans.”
The posters were immediately defaced with messages like “AI wouldn’t care if you lived or died.”
Those wanting to experience what it’s like to wear around an AI friend should place orders swiftly.
The company’s website currently says units will be shipping “Winter 2025/26,” but Friend founder Avi Schiffmann told CNBC that devices ordered early enough will ship before Christmas.
— Kif Leswing
Plaud Note
Source: Plaud
Plaud, the AI recorder
The Plaud Note looks more like a credit card than a voice recorder, but it’s an ideal purchase for any note taker who wants to capture meetings, lectures or any dictation.
With over 30 hours of recording time and battery that last 60 days on standby, the slim device can produce transcriptions in 112 languages. The transcriptions include tags for each speaker on the audio.
The recorder’s companion app is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-5, Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro. The app uses those AI models to generate detailed summaries and notes. Users can select from over 3,000 summary templates, such as phone Q&As or seminar notes.
The Plaud App’s basic plan offers 300 minutes of transcription per month, though users can upgrade to a pro plan for 1,200 minutes for $8.33 per month or a more expensive unlimited plan for $19.99 per month.
The recorder can easily be attached to phones with MagSafe magnets, meaning all Apple smartphones since the iPhone 12 series, or phone cases with similar magnets.
The company also offers the Plaud NotePin, a smaller, pill-shaped version of the recorder that can be worn as a magnetic pin, clip, wristband or necklace.
Typically priced at $159, both devices are currently on sale for 20% off during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with another 15% markdown set for Christmas, the company said.
— Jaures Yip
WATCH: Google releases Gemini 3.0 model, closes gap on ChatGPT
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