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Diabetes drug significantly cuts body weight in adults with obesity

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  • chris_in_cal
    chris_in_cal Posts: 2,175 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    chris_in_cal wrote: »
    Is it up to MFP standards to discuss Semaglutides? Are there some MFP rules regarding this? I believe things are censored according to MFP standards, but I've not read any published standards for MFP posting. Do they exist?

    What? What do you mean?

    If it's legal, we can talk about it. Here are the general Community Guidelines:
    https://www.myfitnesspal.com/community-guidelines

    This is posted in the Debate Club section, too. There will be lots of opinions here. You can read the Debate Club "rules" here:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10331444/welcome-to-the-debate-health-and-fitness-category-please-read

    Thanks for the details.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,956 Member
    edited July 2023
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    chris_in_cal wrote: »
    It seems a thread was removed from Debate Club today.

    I'm new in this "Debate Club" category and have never observed a thread being removed. I was surprised (though I could just be mistaken on this)

    Threads do get removed - all over the site.

    It would have to be pretty egregious to be removed here in Debate - however, sometimes the person who posts the thread can and does ask for it to be removed for whatever reason.
  • chris_in_cal
    chris_in_cal Posts: 2,175 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    - however, sometimes the person who posts the thread can and does ask for it to be removed for whatever reason.

    That seems likely, it was otherwise tame and informative. Thank you again.
  • Dante_80
    Dante_80 Posts: 479 Member
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    Here is an interesting one from Reuters.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/most-patients-using-weight-loss-drugs-like-wegovy-stop-within-year-data-show-2023-07-11/

    Exclusive: Most patients using weight-loss drugs like Wegovy stop within a year, data show

    July 11 (Reuters) - Only about one-third of patients prescribed a popular weight-loss drug like Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO) Wegovy were still taking it a year later, while total healthcare costs for the group rose sharply, according to an analysis of U.S. pharmacy claims shared with Reuters.

    The annual cost of overall care for patients prior to taking Wegovy or a similar drug was $12,371, on average, according to the analysis. The full-year cost after starting the medication jumped by 59% to $19,657, on average.

    The costs for a similar control group of patients not taking the drugs decreased by 4% over the same period. The mean age of patients included in the analysis was 47 and 81% were female.

    Medicines such as Wegovy can cost more than $1,000 per month, and any improvement in health and subsequent reduction in medical costs is not likely to occur quickly.

    "This analysis points to the fact that there can be a lot of spending on people that are not likely to reap any long-term health benefits," said Khrysta Baig, a health policy researcher at Vanderbilt University who reviewed the findings for Reuters.

    "We need to better target who has access to them if we want to realize their full potential," she said of the obesity treatments.

    Novo Nordisk did not comment on the analysis, but said in a statement that "obesity requires long-term management" and "broadening coverage is key to ensure that those who need (therapy) can access and afford their medicines."

    Shares of the Danish drugmaker fell 2.3% on Tuesday.

    The analysis by Prime Therapeutics, a pharmacy benefits manager (PBM), 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.

    GLP-1 drugs, originally developed to help control blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes, also suppress appetite and promote a feeling of fullness.

    For the analysis, Prime Therapeutics excluded patients with type 2 diabetes to focus on obesity treatment.

    Nearly half of the patients were prescribed Novo's injected Ozempic or Wegovy, both of which contain the active ingredient semaglutide. Others were taking Saxenda (liraglutide), an older Novo GLP drug, or Rybelsus, an oral version of semaglutide.

    Overall, 32% of the patients were still taking the medicine for weight loss a year after their initial prescription. All the patients had insurance coverage for GLP-1 drugs, and the results did not differ materially based which of the drugs was prescribed, Prime said.

    Patrick Gleason, Prime’s assistant vice president for health outcomes and 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.

    "The majority of patients aren't getting the value of the product and there's waste, especially with an expensive therapy," Gleason said. "I was a little bit surprised by the persistency rate."

    Prime Therapeutics is owned by 19 U.S. Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance plans and manages pharmacy benefits for about 38 million people.

    Prime did not ask patients why their prescriptions stopped. Gleason suggested a mix of possibilities, including patients finding the nausea and vomiting side effects too severe or an inability to afford to keep paying co-pays or deductibles.

    Drugmakers and many doctors have been pushing for better insurance coverage of anti-obesity medications. They say employers, insurers and PBMs might be contributing to low adherence by imposing too many restrictions and high out-of-pocket costs.

    David Lassen, chief clinical officer at Prime Therapeutics, said it will take two to three years of data to better gauge the financial and medical outcomes for patients taking GLP-1 drugs for obesity. He said a majority of Prime’s commercial customers do not currently cover weight-loss medications.

    "This data doesn’t help move them off of that," Lassen said.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,114 Member
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    Another recent article:
    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/10/health/weight-loss-medications-under-evaluation-for-suicide-risks/index.html

    "European regulators said Tuesday that they’d broadened an investigation started last week into the risk of suicidal thoughts among patients taking popular drugs for weight loss, like Ozempic, to include more potential cases and other medicines in the class.

    The European Medicines Agency is now evaluating about 150 reports of possible cases of self-injury and suicidal thoughts, the regulator said in a statement Tuesday."
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,900 Member
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    chris_in_cal wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    - however, sometimes the person who posts the thread can and does ask for it to be removed for whatever reason.

    That seems likely, it was otherwise tame and informative. Thank you again.

    I did not see the thread in question, but it is possible it was SO tame it did not belong in Debate and so was moved to a more appropriate forum.
  • chris_in_cal
    chris_in_cal Posts: 2,175 Member
    edited July 2023
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    but it is possible it was SO tame it did not belong in Debate and so was moved to a more appropriate forum.

    That's possible. It was good. It seems some posters are attaching shame to the idea of using a semaglutide. "My way or the highway. You are cheating, etc." They often don't come out so bluntly, but it's the subtext.

    This poster was moving from "I am thinking if it is right for me." and all the medical and physical stuff, into "I am feeling some shame about taking it."

    That was good. It's important. It's definitely out there in the minds of many. I was looking forward to seeing it laid out.

    Like a flash, it was gone. Disappeared.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,611 Member
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    chris_in_cal wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    but it is possible it was SO tame it did not belong in Debate and so was moved to a more appropriate forum.

    That's possible. It was good. It seems some posters are attaching shame to the idea of using a semaglutide. "My way or the highway. You are cheating, etc." They often don't come out so bluntly, but it's the subtext.

    This poster was moving from "I am thinking if it is right for me." and all the medical and physical stuff, into "I am feeling some shame about taking it."

    That was good. It's important. It's definitely out there in the minds of many. I was looking forward to seeing it laid out.

    Like a flash, it was gone. Disappeared.

    I've seen a few of these threads... to be honest, I don't think anyone is really shaming anyone for taking semaglutide. I think if you read them with the preconception "everyone will blame and shame me/us for using semaglutide", then that's what you're going to see no matter what the other people are actually saying. All I've really seen is people pointing out potential risks, which is fair. There are risks to everything, it's all about whether the tradeoff is worth it. To decide that, it's important to be aware of any potential outcomes, good and bad.
  • chris_in_cal
    chris_in_cal Posts: 2,175 Member
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    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    There are risks to everything, it's all about whether the tradeoff is worth it.

    Wise words, I agree. I'll be as discerning as I can, but certainly on a public internet forum there are comments coming from all directions. Most, at best, from a place of sincerity.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,147 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    chris_in_cal wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    - however, sometimes the person who posts the thread can and does ask for it to be removed for whatever reason.

    That seems likely, it was otherwise tame and informative. Thank you again.

    I did not see the thread in question, but it is possible it was SO tame it did not belong in Debate and so was moved to a more appropriate forum.

    It wasn't totally off the mainstream for debate. I assumed the OP asked for it to be deleted. It hadn't been heading into the ditch consistently in a way that usually gets a thread deleted for violating standards.

    If the OP did delete it, I'm sorry that they felt the need, but it's their prerogative. I'm not inclined to question that after the fact (which you didn't, kshama - that part was just a general comment).

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