Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk Are Fine -- but These 2 Stocks Could Be an Even Better Way to Invest in the GLP-1 Boom

GLP-1 medicine demand is described as “booming,” supporting medical device suppliers Becton Dickinson and Abbott Laboratories. Becton plans a $110 million expansion to increase prefillable syringe capacity for GLP-1 delivery, while Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre CGM is cited as seeing continued adoption with GLP-1 patients despite earlier concerns. Both companies are highlighted as Dividend Kings with 54 consecutive years of dividend increases, framing the setup as a steadier long-term income/turnaround opportunity rather than a near-term catalyst.

Analysis

This is more a durability story than a near-term growth shock. BDX has the cleaner exposure because syringe/consumable demand is high-frequency, sticky, and largely independent of GLP-1 winner selection; the incremental revenue is helpful for mix and utilization, but probably not large enough to move consolidated growth by itself. The bigger second-order winner is the broader sterile-consumables supply chain, while any underappreciated loser is insulin-delivery hardware and some diabetes adjacencies if GLP-1 penetration keeps shifting treatment mix.

ABT is subtler: the market’s mistake is assuming GLP-1s mechanically cannibalize CGM. The more important mechanism is that these drugs can increase total monitoring intensity and physician touchpoints, which supports Libre attach rates over a multi-quarter horizon. Near term, though, ABT still has to clear slower nutrition/diagnostics and prove that CGM growth is not just patient migration; absent that, the stock may remain a valuation story rather than an earnings re-rate.

Contrarian view: consensus is overfitting the drug headlines and underpricing the beneficiaries with recurring consumables and installed-base economics. But the signal is still modest, so the best expression is relative rather than directional. What would falsify it: weaker-than-expected Libre sensor growth, commentary on pricing pressure in prefillable syringes, or any evidence that GLP-1 adoption reduces monitoring frequency instead of increasing it.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long BDX on 5%+ pullbacks, 3-6 month horizon; cleaner pick-and-shovels exposure with recurring revenue and dividend support. Falsify if prefillable syringe demand normalizes or management signals pricing pressure.
• Keep ABT as a starter long only on evidence of reaccelerating Libre growth next earnings print; upside is from multi-quarter attach-rate gains, but near-term execution risk remains in nutrition/diagnostics.
• Relative-value idea: long BDX / short a broad healthcare ETF such as XLV into the next two earnings cycles, aiming to capture idiosyncratic consumables momentum while reducing sector beta.
• No options chase here; wait for commentary on GLP-1-related capacity utilization and CGM uptake before adding leverage.