Analysts attended earnings calls in the third quarter armed with questions for healthcare and consumer companies about the potential effect on their sales from the growing popularity of these drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists. A Reuters analysis of earnings transcripts for the third quarter showed "GLP-1" or alternatives like "obesity" or "weight-loss medications" were mentioned 256 times across 29 U.S. and European healthcare and consumer companies. That's more than double the mentions for the second quarter, when those phrases came up 127 times. While some consumer companies have talked about factors such as fewer calories being consumed, "these kind of large extrapolations" seem to be a bit of a stretch, said BMO Capital analyst Evan Seigerman. For big pharma manufacturers like Pfizer (PFE.N) and Amgen (AMGN.O), analyst questions were aimed at their obesity drug candidates.

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Persons: Lilly, George Frey, Jeff Jonas, it's, Eli Lilly's, John Furner, Mondelez, Eli Lilly, Evan Seigerman, LVMH, Rajesh Kumar, Jonas, Bhanvi Satija, Savyata Mishra, Arpan Varghese, David Gaffen, Shounak Organizations: Novo Nordisk, Pharmacy, REUTERS, Gabelli, Novo, Walmart, Walmart U.S, Hershey, Truist Securities, Krispy, BMO Capital, Danish, pharma, Pfizer, Devices, HSBC, Thomson Locations: Provo , Utah, U.S, United States, Novo, Bengaluru