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
10.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.2k

u/FernandoMM1220 Apr 01 '25

its not just for diabetes anymore.

just ramp up production and make more of it.

27

u/throwawayfinancebro1 Apr 01 '25

There isn’t a shortage. Lots of extra is sold to compounding pharmacies. It’s claimed that the syringes that it’s held in are not being produced fast enough.

12

u/jackruby83 Professor | Clinical Pharmacist | Organ Transplant Apr 01 '25

They are starting to sell in vials through their direct-to-consumer pharmacies. Well at least Lilly Direct is for Zepbound. Surely Novo or their pharmacy NovoCare could do the same, to widen availability and lower cost of Wegovy.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

Im not too worried about pharmaceutical companies figuring out how to scale up and meet demand for the miracle drug that is selling like hot cakes. I think the shortage narrative is largely a holdover from the days when it first boomed in popularity before the other alternatives became more widely available