Opinion

It’s the world’s leading killer. Make it the focus of the next breakthrough.

Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2009 to 2017, is president and chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives and senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In 2023, the weight-loss drug Wegovy and similar medications were a scientific and cultural — and profit-making — breakthrough. Allowing patients to shed weight without diet or exercise, they are a rare bright spot in efforts to reverse obesity. They also reduce heart disease.