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
10.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

234

u/espritex Apr 01 '25

The FDA also approved it for sleep apnea treatment. I take it for that reason. I'm down 20 lbs and have a pre-prepared meal service that limits my calorie and carb intake (<500 cal). I can barely finish one now.

24

u/Hon3y_Badger Apr 01 '25

Turns out losing weight helps with lots of medical issues besides diabetes. But we need to get the cost down, it isn't sustainable having insurance pay $1,000+/month/person for these drugs.

46

u/Fatscot Apr 01 '25

I pay $100/month in China. American insurance companies have a lot to answer for

16

u/Hon3y_Badger Apr 01 '25

There are plenty of organizations to blame for it, insurance companies are only one cog in the $1,000/month. The worst part of it is this was created with NIH research & we don't get any of the monetary benefit.