Why did Lilly give tirzepatide a new name for obesity? Hint: It’s the marketing

Eli Lil­ly’s de­ci­sion to give two dis­tinc­tive brand names to tirzepatide, which is ap­proved for type 2 di­a­betes and now chron­ic weight man­age­ment, in­di­cates just how dif­fer­ent­ly the com­pa­ny plans to mar­ket both in­di­ca­tions.

Last week it an­nounced that its weight man­age­ment ver­sion of the drug is called Zep­bound, while the same drug is brand­ed as Moun­jaro for type 2 di­a­betes.

“Pa­tients liv­ing with di­a­betes and pa­tients with obe­si­ty have dif­fer­ent needs,” a Lil­ly spokesper­son said in an email. “The dif­fer­ent brands al­low Lil­ly to ed­u­cate and pro­vide re­sources and tools in or­der for health­care pro­fes­sion­als and pa­tients to start suc­cess­ful­ly on Zep­bound.”

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