this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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In the news: Most patients using weight-loss drugs like Wegovy stop within a year (www.reuters.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Article: Exclusive: Most patients using weight-loss drugs like Wegovy stop within a year, data show - Reuters, 11 July 2023 Wayback Link

Some lede and pullquotes for basic facts just in case you hit a paywall:

Only about one-third of patients prescribed a popular weight-loss drug like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy were still taking it a year later [...]

The analysis by [...] reviewed pharmacy and medical claims data for 4,255 people with commercial health plans. They had all received new prescriptions of the drugs from a class known as GLP-1 agonists between January and December 2021, and had a diagnosis of obesity, prediabetes or a body mass index of 30 or higher.

Overall, 32% of the patients were still taking the medicine for weight loss a year after their initial prescription [...] and the results did not differ materially based which of the drugs was prescribed

Patrick Gleason [...] a co-author of the analysis, said this real-world data suggests a substantial drop in adherence compared to what was reported in clinical trials. In trials with adults, Novo found that 6.8% of patients taking Wegovy discontinued treatment due to gastrointestinal problems and other adverse events.

Prime did not ask patients why their prescriptions stopped. [...] All the patients had insurance coverage for GLP-1 drugs.

This article is very interesting to me and prompts the question, why are people stopping? Were you prescribed one of these drugs, did you stop taking it?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

It says they all had insurance coverage for the medication but I wonder if they became unqualified for the medication after losing just enough weight to no longer be in the qualifying BMI or A1C range? Technically I have insurance coverage for Ozempic, but only if I’m diabetic, which I’m not. I could see starting on a GLP1 drug while arguing with insurance, using physicians samples and manufacturer’s coupons, and then giving up after a few months. It’s very expensive and insurance companies are pushing hard to limit how much they pay out.

I think you’re supposed to stay on the medication for years or maybe forever in order to maintain the weight loss. Some people do have terrible side effects, I don’t think I could take it if it made me really nauseous all the time.