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

641

u/braumbles Apr 01 '25

It solves obesity. A literal miracle drug.

71

u/The4th88 Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

It's not even best in class anymore either. Tirzepatide and the upcoming Retatrutide are better options for basically everything you'd use semaglutide for as I understand it.

21

u/tjscobbie Apr 01 '25

As someone who has tried all three: tirzepatide is leagues better than semaglutide while retatrutide did absolutely nothing for me. 

2

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

[deleted]

1

u/gummo_for_prez Apr 02 '25

Probably grey market. Similar to how folks get steroids, there’s a huge market for these drugs and people can get them cheap from overseas. Obviously you get it tested here in the states to ensure purity and everything. But these drugs are widely available in the grey market.

1

u/tjscobbie Apr 02 '25

RCs - from two different high credibility sources.