Oprah Winfrey on January 26, 2023 in Los Angeles, California (AFP/Archives/VALERIE MACON)
The shares of WeightWatchers International fell by more than 22% on Thursday on Wall Street, an abrupt slimming treatment for the group specializing in helping with weight loss, which saw the departure of its most famous shareholder, Oprah Winfrey, fan of new drugs to lose weight.
WW International shares fell 22.67% to around $3 at mid-session on the New York Stock Exchange, as media personality Oprah Winfrey will step down from the board of directors of the diet company whose she had been part for almost 10 years.
The former TV star, whose figure discrepancies have been, to his detriment, a topic of conversation throughout his TV career, admitted late last year to taking prescription medication for obesity.
These drugs, such as Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, treat diabetes, help you lose weight, and can be used to treat obesity. They are panicking the pharmaceutical sector, driving up the stock market valuations of their manufacturers such as the Dane Novo Nordisk or the American Eli Lilly.
“Oprah Winfrey has decided not to run for re-election at the next annual meeting of shareholders which is to be held in May 2024,” announced a press release from WeighWatchers International on Wednesday, recalling that the host has been a member since 2015.
Oprah specifies that she will donate her WW shares or their products and the exercise of the options — the value of which is not specified — to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), at Washington.
The company “supports Ms. Winfrey’s proposal to donate all of her shares to the Museum,” the statement said.
WW even states that Oprah “is making this donation to support the mission of the NMAAHC which is to promote the contributions of African Americans and to eliminate any conflict of interest with the fact that she takes weight loss medication” .
Created in the 1960s, the American company which offers nutritional programs to promote weight loss with group and self-help meetings for a subscription, faces competition from these new, however expensive, drugs.
The group is facing a decline in its members while having adopted a strategy of supporting people on medications that mimic the GLP-1 satiety hormone such as Ozempic.
It has just announced a loss of $112 million in 2023 on sales down 14.5% to $889 million, which the company expects to decline further in 2024.
Oprah adds that she will continue to collaborate on events with WeighWatchers. “I plan to participate in a number of public forums and events where I will passionately advocate for the advancement of the cause of weight health,” the personality said in the WW press release.
© 2024 AFP
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