Only one in four patients in the United States received a prescription for Novo Nordisk. Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss An analysis of U.S. pharmacy advertising seen by Reuters found that many people were still taking popular drugs two years later, but that usage had declined steadily over time.
The analysis doesn’t include details about why patients stopped taking the medication, but it does provide a longer-term view of patients’ actual experiences taking the drugs than previous studies, which looked at use within a year.
Evidence that many people abandon weight-loss treatments soon after they begin has implications for the debate about their effectiveness. Costs to patients, employers and government health plans.
Wegovy and similar drugs, which belong to a class of medications known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, can cost more than $1,000 per month and may require long-term use to see significant benefits.
Their US prices have recently risen to President Joe Biden and other public officialsHe said if just half of obese adults used these drugs, it could cost the country $411 billion a year — $5 billion more than Americans will spend on all prescription drugs in 2022.
“It’s not cost-effective to give GLP-1 to everyone,” says Dr. Rekha Kumar, an obesity specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and chief medical officer for the online weight-loss program Found. “People want to provide obesity care to their employees, but they want to do it in a way that won’t bankrupt them.”
More news about weight loss drugs
Prime Therapeutics and pharmacy benefits management company Magellan Rx Management examined pharmacy and medical claims data from 3,364 people with private health insurance that covers GLP-1 drugs, all of whom had received a new prescription between January and December 2021 and had been diagnosed with obesity or a BMI of 30 or higher.
PBMs excluded patients taking medications for type 2 diabetes, the disease for which these drugs were originally developed. The mean age of patients included in the analysis was 46.5 years, and 81% were women.
Last year, Prime released data showing that 32% of patients continued to take GLP-1 drugs for weight loss 12 months after their first prescription. Overall, for all drugs included in the study, only about 15% of people were still taking the drugs after two years, according to the new data.
For Vigovy, 24.1% of patients continued treatment for more than two years with no gap of more than 60 days, down from 36% of patients who took it for one full year. For Ozempic, which contains the same active ingredient semaglutide as Vigovy, 22.2% of patients continued treatment for two years, down from 47.1% of patients who took it for one year.
The older GLP-1 drugs fared poorly: After two years, only 7.4% of patients were still taking Novo’s Saxenda, a drug that is less effective at reducing weight, but some health plans require patients to try it before taking newer GLP drugs such as Wegovy or Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.
In the analysis, 45% of patients were taking Ozempic or Wegovi, while the others were taking the liraglutide Saxenda or Victoza, the oral form of semaglutide Ryvelsus, or Lilly’s Trulicity (dulaglutide).
The analysis also found that 26 percent of patients changed their GLP-1 medication during treatment, likely reflecting drug shortages or changes in insurance coverage, according to Patrick Gleason, PhD, vice president of health outcomes at Prime/MRx and co-author of the analysis.
Neither Novo nor Lily could keep up. Unprecedented demand For new medicines.
“Nobody really knows.”
Novo Nordisk said in a statement that the analysis had several limitations. Wegovee wasn’t released until June 2021, halfway through the study period, and wasn’t immediately available for insurance coverage. Ozempic is also not approved for weight-loss treatment, which could affect patients’ insurance coverage and retention, the Danish drugmaker said.
“We believe that these data are not sufficient to draw any conclusions about overall patient adherence and persistence to various GLP-1 drugs, including our therapeutics,” the company said.
A new GLP-1 in clinical trials has helped people lose more than 15% of their body weight by suppressing appetite and promoting satiety, and is also being tested for a number of other health benefits that could expand insurance coverage.
Wegovy in March Approved by the United States Reduces the risk of stroke and heart attack in overweight and obese adults.
The analysis did not track long-term use of Eli Lilly’s Maunjaro and Zepbound, drugs that were released after the study began. Lilly declined to comment on the overall findings.
Prime/MRx did not ask patients why their prescriptions were stopped, and Gleason said it was likely due to side effects such as nausea or vomiting, out-of-pocket costs not covered by insurance or a lack of supply.
Doctors say some patients stop taking the drugs after successfully losing weight, and other studies have shown that most patients who stop taking GLP-1 drugs usually regain much of the weight.
“No one knows how long people should take these medications,” says Dr. Walid Gherad, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who studies medication adherence.
Kumar said some clinics and telehealth services were not testing patients properly or providing proper nutrition and exercise guidance along with medication, leading to poor outcomes and causing patients to abandon treatment.
Prime/MRx is owned by 19 Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans in the U.S. and manages pharmacy benefits for approximately 38 million people.
Dr. David Lassen, the PBM’s chief clinical officer, said he was concerned about the steady decline in retention rates even two years after starting treatment.
“Instead of plateauing, it’s gotten a little worse,” he said. “Sustainability of weight loss is key to achieving long-term results.”
