McDonald's in Trouble as Ozempic Takes Hold

Broken ice cream machines aren't the only thing bedeviling stalwart fast food chain McDonald's.

Financial services firm Redburn Atlantic put the company's stock in the bear category, coinciding with a slumpy week in which it lost about three percent of its value — because analysts are betting that GLP-1 agonist weight loss drugs like Ozempic are going to disrupt the fast food business model, CBS News reports.

The eyebrow-raising conclusion comes as the analysts reason that people with lower incomes who go on the drugs will tend to shun food outside the home. Meanwhile, people at a higher income level who take Ozempic and similar go back to their food spending habits after a year or so.

"Behaviour changes extend beyond the individual user — reshaping group dining, influencing household routines and softening habitual demand," wrote the analysts, as reported by CBS. "A 1 percent drag today could easily build to 10 percent or more over time, particularly for brands skewed toward lower income consumers or group occasions."

This could have a huge impact on the bottom line of fast food chains like McDonald's, which could stand to lose as much as $482 million annually as they see the disappearance of 28 million visits from formerly hungry customers.

This is all complete speculation at this point, because only about six percent of American adults are currently taking these weight loss medications. And they're prohibitively expensive, prices starting at around $900 per month, meaning that extremely few poor people are currently able to afford them.

But there's a movement by some policymakers to lower the price of the drugs, which have been proven to not just help people lose weight, but they come with a rash of benefits from preventing certain cancers to treating addictions, among other positives.

So if lawmakers force a reduction in price in the future, expect fast food chains like McDonald's to be left holding the bag.

And maybe that's a good thing, because the kind of fried foods that McDonald's traffics in are just plain bad for your health.

More on Ozempic: Doctors Concerned by Massive Uptick in Teens Taking Ozempic

The post McDonald's in Trouble as Ozempic Takes Hold appeared first on Futurism.