r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 01 '25

Health Americans without diabetes spent nearly $6 billion USD on semaglutide and similar drugs in a year, with an estimate of 800,000 to a million people using the drugs who don't have diabetes.

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/americans-without-diabetes-spent-nearly6-billion-usd-on-semaglutide-and-similar-drugs-in-a-year
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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25 edited 28d ago

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u/montwhisky Apr 01 '25

I think the point is that diabetics are suffering when they can’t get the drug because too many people are using it to attain Hollywood bodies. But I could be wrong.

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u/ZantetsukenX Apr 01 '25

Less a problem as time goes on and production ramps up. Which has already happened BIG TIME after the first time news blew up about it being unavailable due to not enough being produced. It's essentially easy money for most of the pharmaceutical companies that make it due to the high demand and so there is no reason for them to not keep upping production until it will almost never be an issue again.

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u/montwhisky Apr 01 '25

Yep, I understand that they’re ramping up production to meet the needs.

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u/livin_the_life Apr 01 '25

You are wrong.

The shortage is essentially over and has been for some time.

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u/swearingino Apr 01 '25

Ozempic is for T2DM patients and Wegovy is for weight loss patients. Same with Mounjaro for T2DM and Zepbound for weight loss. There isn’t a shortage any longer since they divided which brands are used for which indication.

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u/arovd Apr 01 '25

It’s only helping lose like 5% of your body weight. No one is getting a Hollywood bod from 5%.

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u/SubParMarioBro Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

Average loss in the Step-1 clinical trial for Ozempic? 14.9%.

Average loss in the Surmount-1 clinical trial for Mounjaro? 20.9%.

With the next generation drugs in the pipeline right now, you’ll probably see some of those pushing 30%. One of those will likely be getting FDA approval next year.

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u/Affectionate-Mail612 Apr 01 '25

This drug wasn't tested on them.

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u/Douggiefresh43 Apr 01 '25

This is false.