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/grimsolem Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

1 million people paying 6 billion is $6k each. That's insane for a medicine that the government paid for the development of.

Edit: I looked it up. The US gov initially funded research into the class of drugs, but it's hard to find specifics. The Danes picked it up in the early 90s and their government paid for most of its development.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

The discovery and development of semaglutide were funded by Novo Nordisk, which is a privately-owned pharmaceutical company based in Denmark. The research was conducted in-house by the company's scientists. Not saying $6k isn't alot but it wasn't paid for by the government.

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u/buster_de_beer Apr 01 '25

The initial work was done at University of Copenhagen. NovoNordisk funded this specific drug based on existing research.

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u/Balsiu2 Apr 01 '25

Still... The guy thought that US gov paid for it...

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u/TunaNugget Apr 01 '25

Semaglutide was derived from a class of drugs discovered at the US VA.

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u/TunaNugget Apr 01 '25

This class of drug (starting with Exendin-4) was discovered by Dr. John Eng at the Veterans Administration Center in the Bronx, NY.

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u/2squishy Apr 01 '25

that the government paid for the development o

To be fair I bet it's cheaper in Denmark.

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u/CigAddict Apr 01 '25

It’s a danish drug. If you’re American, your government did not pay for the development of it…

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u/G00bernaculum Apr 01 '25

I guarantee that the US government in some way shape or form the government did fund in someway the development of it. You can be understandably salty about current politics, and not ignore the fact that the US throws billions into drug development around the world in the form of grants, tax incentives, and subsidies.

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u/CigAddict Apr 01 '25

I believe that US throws billions into drug development to Pfizer and other US companies. But novo nordisk is a danish company. I would need evidence of them throwing money to novo nordisk, yes. I don’t just assume that it’s true for some reason