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A beautiful, but over weight Maine Coon Cat gets measured around the belly by a vet.<\/p>\n
Ryersonclark | E+ | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Felix is five years old, loves food, and refuses to lose weight.<\/p>\n
His owner, Amy in Dallas, has tried cutting back on meals, but with two cats in the house, “he just gobbles down all the food,” she said. The extra pounds worry her because she knows obesity can shorten a cat’s life and strain its joints and heart.<\/p>\n
“I’ve actually thought about it,” she said of the potential of weight loss drugs for pets. “If they can make one for my cat, that would be great.”<\/p>\n
It may sound far-fetched, but the idea is already moving from wishful thinking toward veterinary research. Two U.S. biotech companies are testing experimental GLP-1 weight-loss treatments for overweight cats, marking one of the earliest attempts to bring the blockbuster drug class into pet medicine.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, some of the world’s largest pet-food makers are investing heavily in nutrition and longevity products aimed at many of the same health problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The GLP-1 boom spearheaded by Novo Nordisk<\/a>