When it comes to Wall Street, looking at pharmaceuticals is like looking at "weight loss"

In the U.S. stock market, any pharmaceutical company related to weight loss drugs will attract speculation.

Michael Yee, a senior analyst at the investment bank Jefferies, released a report last week pointing out that Gilead Sciences has an early-stage metabolic drug project that may develop into weight loss drugs in the future. According to Yee, Gilead Sciences will present this data at the American Diabetes Association meeting later this week.

Yee's statement caused Gilead's stock price to soar by 3.6% last Friday, marking the largest single-day increase in nearly a year.

However, Gilead Sciences quickly clarified that the company focuses on biotechnology research and development for cancer and HIV treatment, and does not position itself as a developer of weight loss drugs. The project mentioned by Yee mainly focuses on liver treatment, targeting further investment in the field of NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a metabolic disease usually caused by obesity). Additionally, Gilead Sciences is conducting a mid-term study to evaluate the possibility of combination therapy with GLP-1 drugs for NASH.

Gilead's explanation distancing itself from weight loss drugs caused its stock price to drop for two days, erasing all gains.

This "weight loss drug controversy" at Gilead Sciences also proves a point: in pharmaceutical stock investments, nothing attracts investors' interest more than weight loss drugs.

For example, pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, with their weight loss drugs Zepbound and Wegovy, respectively, have received widespread attention on Wall Street. Not only talk show queen Oprah, even Musk has tried these weight loss drugs.

Riding on the wave of weight loss drugs, the market value of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk is approaching $1 trillion, which a few years ago would have been an unimaginable achievement for a pharmaceutical company.

Even funds holding weight loss drug companies in their portfolios have performed well.

Jared Holz, a healthcare stock strategist at Mizuho Securities, pointed out that if it weren't for Eli Lilly accounting for 13% of their portfolio, their healthcare select industry ETF wouldn't have risen this year.

He emphasized, "In the healthcare sector, in terms of creating market value or potential, nothing can compare to weight loss drugs."

This has prompted many large pharmaceutical companies to express their interest in entering the weight loss drug market and getting a piece of the pie. Companies including Roche, AstraZeneca, AbbVie, Pfizer, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals are all developing their own weight loss drugs.

Even pharmaceutical giant Merck has publicly stated that they are monitoring opportunities in the oral weight loss drug field