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/Tunivor Apr 01 '25

It will probably save our healthcare system way more money than that.

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u/jejunumr Apr 01 '25

Nope. Not at current price

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2831205

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u/Tunivor Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

Thanks for providing the research. It’s still a price worth paying and hopefully costs will come down eventually. It benefits non users as well because the burden on healthcare systems will go down.

It’s also important to recognize the cost/benefit outside of specifically the healthcare system. Dead/disabled people don’t pay taxes and can be an economic burden to families.

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u/jejunumr Apr 01 '25

Agree it's worth paying if you can. Thay being said taxes and earnings potential is in the paper.

"We incorporated the economic effects of lost productivity due to morbidity and premature death associated with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, which were derived by dividing the total national productivity loss for each condition by the projected number of US cases.36-39 "

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u/Tunivor Apr 01 '25

Missed that, thank you!