More Than Half of US Adults Are Now Eligible For Ozempic.
Ozempic, a drug used to treat diabetes, keeps gaining attention as celebrities, tech moguls and TikTok influencers have described taking it to lose weight in short time frames.
The Food and Drug Administration first approved the injectable medication for treating diabetes in 2017; the agency approved a drug with a higher dose of the active ingredient in Ozempic, called semaglutide, to treat obesity in 2021, under the brand name Wegovy. Since then, talk of the drug has popped up across the internet.
Ozempic and Wegovy are both designed to be injected once a week in the stomach, thigh, or arm.
Semaglutide lowers blood sugar levels and regulates insulin, which is crucial for people with Type 2 diabetes. The drug also imitates a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 that we naturally produce in our intestines, limiting appetite by signaling to our bodies that we feel full and prompting our stomachs to empty more slowly. As a result, people with obesity and accompanying health concerns have lost weight while taking it. People feel fuller faster, said Dr. Janice Jin Hwang, chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. For patients taking the medication, “foods that used to be exciting to them are no longer exciting,” she said.
Who will take
After the F.D.A. approved Ozempic for people with Type 2 diabetes, the agency approved Wegovy for adults with obesity or excess weight with at least one “weight-related condition,” which the agency considers to be issues like high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol. The F.D.A. defines obesity and overweight using the Body Mass Index, an entrenched but widely debated metric. Regulators approved Zepbound, the newest weight loss drug, for people with a B.M.I. of 30 or greater, or 27 or greater with a weight-related condition.
These medications can be expensive without insurance — the list price for Wegovy is over $1,300 for a 28-day supply, and Ozempic can cost around $892 for a monthly supply without insurance — and people who don’t meet the F.D.A.’s criteria will likely have trouble getting insurance to cover it.
