Posted on 12/20/2024 8:28:47 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Research published in the last week revealed that for the first time in more than a decade, obesity rates among US adults fell slightly last year, decreasing from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023. While we might need a few more years of data to conclusively tie these results to the rise of semaglutide drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, it feels impossible to ignore the timing, with Novo’s sales booming in recent years and hitting a record ~$10 billion in its latest quarter.
Sales of these GLP-1 treatments — drugs that mimic the effects of blood-sugar-regulating hormone GLP-1, a feature originally intended for diabetes care but which also happened to cause weight loss in test subjects — have increased by almost 6x since the start of 2018. To effectively market both of the major positive side effects of GLP-1 treatments, Novo Nordisk separated its semaglutide brands into Ozempic (for diabetes) and Wegovy (for weight loss). Sales of each have soared, helping the Danish company unseat luxury giant LVMH as Europe’s most valuable company.
Of course, success breeds competition. While Novo Nordisk endures as the first and last word in weight-loss drugs, rival remedies like Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide-based Mounjaro and Zepbound have also seen soaring sales as other pharmaceutical giants like Viking Therapeutics race to produce their own alternative treatments.
As GLP-1s have gone mainstream, supply has been a critical constraint — an unwelcome trend for diabetes patients who need the drugs for their intended purpose, with telehealth companies receiving thousands of reports of shortages.
Indeed, Ozempic is now so widespread that it has its own place in popular culture, as GLP-1 treatments have become synonymous with an evolved iteration of a modern consumer’s desire for thinness. This year alone, weight-loss drugs featured heavily in satirical cartoons, Halloween costumes, and celebrity endorsements — not to mention countless tabloid dissections of “Ozempic face,” a term used to describe the look of those who’ve rapidly lost weight using the drug.
For such a widely popular treatment that’s still so new, it follows that scientists everywhere are trying to grasp the effects that weight-loss drugs will have on users’ lives in years to come. One recent report linked Ozempic to sudden blindness while another suggested it might delay aging (see: The Substance), and weight-loss drugs have also received nods in the symptom categories of kidney disease (reduces!), cholesterol (reduces!), and, er, burps (increases, unfortunately).
Predicting when a world-changing discovery is going to be made is hard. Accurately predicting its impact is arguably even harder. The iPhone only launched in 2007, before which we barely used the word “app”; AI hype has hit fever pitch this year; and, though semaglutide products were first approved by the FDA in 2021 and some writers called last year “The Year of Ozempic,” knock-on effects of the weight-loss drug boom are still being felt moving into 2025.
Still I was shocked the price was a fortune for some of the Rxs.
Pays for a lot of TV ads of happy, thrilled people “losing weight” and “keeping it off.”
One source summary:
Weight loss injections can cost between $1,000 and $2,000 per month for brand-name drugs. For example, as of May 2023, Wegovy cost $1,349 per month, Ozempic cost $935 per month, and Mounjaro cost $1,023 per month.
Health plans vary in amounts excluded or accepted along with copays.
I’ve been on terzepatide for 15 months. This is a compound version of Wegovy/Zepbound, which is the same stuff. I’ve lost 60 lbs. I’m off high blood pressure meds, and would do it again, even with the critics complaining about those that benefit from this medication.
I used welbutrin/zyban 21 years ago to quit smoking. I was a 2 pack, plus, a day smoker back then.
Some will state that the GLP1 meds are for diabetics, welbutrin was for depression, or something like that. Side effects for welbutrin was smokers losing the desire to smoke. So, they released it as zyban. Same stuff.
Ozempic was re-released as wegovy, which is semaglutide, and monjauro, is zepbound, which is terzepatide. Change the name, it’s the same stuff.
So that is 4 out of 100? NOOOO. That is 4 out of 1000. Somebody is pushing Ozempic. Wouldn’t be Big Pharma?
And I only pay $399.00/month. Getting it off brand from a compound pharmacy makes it affordable.
That should have read monjauro/Zepbound versus wegovy/Zepbound. It’s all GLP1 sruff.
First of all, is .4 within the margin of error? I am guessing it is not.
In a six month period, not doubt you can lose weight, but does it last, or do you gain back more?
Are you losing more muscle, fat, what?
It’s a lifetime drug. If you get off it, the average gain back is abt 2/3 of weight lost, if I remember that right. The problem is that it changes your digestive system so that rather than having less appetite, you’d have more. Again, that’s only a fuzzy memory. I’m on a pill version and, so far, all side effects have been purely positive. My diabetes numbers, as well as all others, have dropped into the normal range. Don’t know if I would have agreed to go on it if I’d known more about people who had scary side effects, but my A1C diabetes number was out of sight and doctor was pushing forever, so I gave in. Pure luck, for which I’m grateful, that none of the bad side effects happened.
BAD NEWS? — The FDA this week declared that compounding of tirzepatide MUST STOP within 60 - 90 days.
All the vast majority of people seeking to lose weight have to do is eat less and exercise more.
A simple, cheap solution that works, but self control is required.
Did you ever check how much you are losing fat and muscle?
So you will be on it for life?
Exactly. The long-term side effects of these weight loss drugs are truly unknown. Their popular off-label use has only been within the last several years.
Serious question, do doctors get some kind of indirect kickbacks from prescribing ozempic? Is there some behind the scenes compensation from pharmaceutical salesmen for getting patients onto it?
The Fedgov is spending hundreds of billions each year on diabetes and obesity caused illness each year. Via Medicaid and Medicare.
Billions can be saved by getting these people on Ozempic etc. The Fedgov needs to cut better deals with weight loss drug makers. Then hand out that stuff like candy to Hefty Americans,
I’ll bet Elon would agree, as part of his DOGE efforts
Considering the FDA's and big pharma's track record over the years, I wouldn't risk it.
It seems like the newer it is and the more it messes with the human body to work some sort of *miracle cure* the worse the side effects re in the long run.
Others can be guinea pigs if they want. I'll pass.
It’s been 7 years since it was approved for diabetes.
Every year you add for more long term studies increases the cost.
A woman I know lost half her body weight about 18 months ago. I135 pounds came off really fast. Who knew there was a beautiful woman all those. layers of fat.
She’s not a wealthy woman, I wonder how much it cost her. Or whether her insurance paid for part of it.
OOOOOPS.
135 pounds came off. Now she weighs 135 and looks far younger now.
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