The Skinny on Obesity Products

If there was ever a market that has all the makings to achieve blockbuster status, the obesity products market is it. According to the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), an estimated 66.2% of U.S. adults age 20 and older are now classified as "overweight or obese." This translates into more than 127 million overweight adults, 66 million obese adults, and 9 million morbidly obese adults in the U.S. alone. At the same time, the incidence of obesity is growing exponentially, at a rate that outpaces the growth of the total U.S. population. Each year an estimated 3.5 million people in the U.S. are newly classified as overweight or obese. And, despite increasing health awareness campaigns and attempts to slow down the obesity rate, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predict that the number of obese adults in the U.S. will more than double in the next five years, reaching an estimated 168 million by the year 2012 (Figure 1). Although the U.S. currently has the largest obese population in the world, the prevalence of obesity is increasing in other industrialized nations as well, affecting an estimated 300 million people worldwide.

A major driving force in the obesity products market is the need to stem the staggering costs of this disease. In addition to the human costs, the economic impact of...