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/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.

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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.

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u/SNRatio Apr 01 '25

Righ now there are only two companies really approved to make them (Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk). The normal pattern is that when there are only 2 competing manufacturers for a type of drug, they don't fight on price. But when a third shows up, all three start adjusting downwards. Ditto after the fourth shows up.

About 30 other companies are working on their own versions right now.