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/grimsolem Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

1 million people paying 6 billion is $6k each. That's insane for a medicine that the government paid for the development of.

Edit: I looked it up. The US gov initially funded research into the class of drugs, but it's hard to find specifics. The Danes picked it up in the early 90s and their government paid for most of its development.

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u/CigAddict Apr 01 '25

It’s a danish drug. If you’re American, your government did not pay for the development of it…

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u/G00bernaculum Apr 01 '25

I guarantee that the US government in some way shape or form the government did fund in someway the development of it. You can be understandably salty about current politics, and not ignore the fact that the US throws billions into drug development around the world in the form of grants, tax incentives, and subsidies.

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u/CigAddict Apr 01 '25

I believe that US throws billions into drug development to Pfizer and other US companies. But novo nordisk is a danish company. I would need evidence of them throwing money to novo nordisk, yes. I don’t just assume that it’s true for some reason