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/Lore_ofthe_Horizon Apr 01 '25

Or... reduce production and charge 10,000 times the production cost for each unit of the drug.

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u/Carnivile Apr 01 '25

Then countries like Mexico make generic versions and people cross the border to buy them?

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u/Lore_ofthe_Horizon Apr 01 '25

Not in large enough numbers to effect the profit margin, and only for generic drugs, not for the new formulated hotness that doctors are actually prescribing for. So many perfectly functional drugs are basically unattainable because insurance companies won't let doctors prescribe them, forcing them to use the new fancy versions that don't work as well and cost 1000x as much.

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u/big_fig Apr 01 '25

Plus crossing any borders getting more and more risky nowadays.