United States: A survey revealed that, overall, less than one-quarter of US patients who started on Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss with Novo Nordisk would still be using the blockbuster drugs two years later; this analysis of US pharmacy claims has shown, noting that there is a consistent decline in the drugs’ usage over time.
More about the news
The work under analysis fails to provide information about the reasons for patient dropout. However, it does provide a longer perspective of the real-practice experiences of courses that the patients took the drugs in a year as compared to the previous research where the usage was studied for less than one year.
Information that a large number of consumers are likely to discontinue the weight-loss therapies shortly after beginning to take them has affected a discussion on their price to those who use them, employers, and government health plans.
More about the medications
Wegovy and analogous medications are part of the bigger GLP-1 receptor agonists category and can cost over USD 1000 per month, possibly calling for long-term use for substantial outcomes.
The US prices recently raised concerns among President Joe Biden and other political community members who stated such drugs could potentially cost the United States USD 411 billion per year if half of obese adults employed it.
That is USD five billion more than all Americans spent on prescription drugs in 2022, as Reuters reported.
According to Dr. Rekha Kumar, an obesity specialist at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center and chief medical officer at Found, an online weight-loss program, “GLP-1s for all isn’t cost-effective,” and “People want to provide obesity care to their employees, but they want to do it in a way that doesn’t bankrupt them.”
What more has the study found?
A pharmacy benefits manager, Prime Therapeutics, and Magellan Rx Management checked the pharmacy and medical claims of 3,364 patients with commercial insurance who began taking GLP-1 drugs.
All the participants had filled a new prescription between January and December 2021 and had obesity, or a body mass index of 30 or higher.
The PBM specifically excluded patients who were utilizing the drugs for which those medicines were initially designed, that is, type 2 diabetes.
The mean age of the patients for whom the above result was calculated was 46.5 percent, and 81 percent were female, as Reuters reported.
In the process of the analysis, it was unveiled that 45 percent of the patients participated in the survey were on Ozempic or Wegovy. Some were taking Saxenda or Victoza which are in the liraglutide family, Rybelsus which is a high potency inhaled semaglutide, or Lilly’s Trulicity that is in dulaglutide.
The study also revealed that 26 percent of patients changed the GLP-1 drugs during therapy; perhaps due to shortages or change of insurance carrier details, according to Patrick Gleason, the associate vice president of health outcomes at Prime / Mrx, and a co-author of the study.
Currently, both Novo and Lilly have also failed to meet the unprecedented demand for the newly produced medicines.