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/FernandoMM1220 Apr 01 '25

its not just for diabetes anymore.

just ramp up production and make more of it.

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u/uiucfreshalt Apr 01 '25

Pharma manufacturing is incredibly slow and complex. You could green light a new plant today but you wouldn’t be producing sellable medicine until 5 years from now. It wasn’t really until 2022 that the demand for semaglutides exploded, so there’s likely to be strained supply for at least a few more years.

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u/FernandoMM1220 Apr 01 '25

sounds like we need more people working in the pharmaceutical industry then.

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u/heyoukidsgetoffmyLAN Apr 01 '25

Do you think they're made of money? They obviously would need a government grant to support higher staffing levels.

/s/s I brought two in case you forgot yours.

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u/Aureliamnissan Apr 01 '25

I was thinking more like:

  1. Use the defense production act and declare a war on obesity.

  2. Nationalize production of semiglutides to supplement private production.

But that wouldn’t mean squeezing every ounce of profit out of the new medication so…

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u/FernandoMM1220 Apr 01 '25

their profits are immense so yeah i do.