REX launches PEPT, a peptide ETF tracking VettaFi index at 0.65% fee

REX launched the REX Peptide ETF (PEPT) on Nasdaq on Oct. 14, tracking the VettaFi Peptide Index (VFPEP), according to the prospectus. The fund holds the drugmakers behind GLP-1 weight-loss treatments alongside the companies that make and deliver them, ETF Trends reported.

The fund is nondiversified, charges a 0.65% annual fee and tracked an index with 36 names as of Oct. 12. The largest index weights were Eli Lilly at 11.86%, Novo Nordisk at 9.88% and Ascendis Pharma at 9.79%, with insulin pump maker Insulet at 7.76% and Protagonist Therapeutics at 7.13% completing the top five, per VettaFi data. Healthcare is 95.29% of index weight; the U.S. accounts for 53.35% and Denmark 22.81%.

VettaFi's methodology sorts companies into four groups: therapeutics, manufacturing and medical devices, supplements, and skincare. Manufacturing covers contract manufacturers and makers of auto-injectors. A company joins the "Core" group when at least half of its revenue, clinical pipeline or research budget is tied to peptides; lighter exposure lands it in a "Diversified" group capped at 20% of the index.

Novo Nordisk exceeded 3 million U.S. prescriptions for its Wegovy pill in just over five months, with more than 80% of new prescriptions going to patients who had never used a GLP-1, per Towards Healthcare. Eli Lilly has committed more than $8 billion to plants in Pennsylvania and Indiana, the same report says.

Towards Healthcare projects the global GLP-1 market growing from $58.05 billion in 2026 to $132.79 billion by 2035, an average yearly rate of 9.63%. Type 2 diabetes was the largest use for the drugs in 2025 at a 58% share, though the report expects obesity treatment to grow fastest.

Lilly, the index's largest holding, has finished its late-stage clinical program for retatrutide, an experimental drug that acts on three hormones, and plans to file for regulatory approval in 2027, according to Towards Healthcare.