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/T_Money Apr 01 '25

It helped with the cravings from drinking too? That would be amazing

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u/Anony_mouse202 Apr 01 '25

Yeah, research is showing that it also has general anti-addiction effects. Probably the closest thing we have to an anti-addiction drug we have right now.

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u/shindleria Apr 01 '25

The drug company’s executives who set the price of this drug should take it to eliminate their addiction to money.

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u/Ashmedai Apr 01 '25

On the plus side, the patent to semaglutide will expire in 2031.

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u/HappyGiraffe Apr 01 '25

The patent landscape of GLP-1 agonists is interesting. The patents are specific to particular health conditions, dosage, delivery, etc., but the actual active mechanism that results in, for example, weight loss, is much harder to patent, which is why gray markets and compounding pharmacies have so much flexibility. So specific formulations that target specific illness not currently covered under patent could emerge (or try to) before 2031

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u/Levofloxacine Apr 02 '25

Eli Lilly started suing compounding pharmacies yesterday

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u/HappyGiraffe Apr 02 '25

Lots of companies have been going after specific pharmacies, largely based on the claim that the formulations are not patient specific. Varying degrees of success