A just lately FDA-approved weight reduction drug heralded as “game-changing” by some researchers is promoting like hotcakes. On Wednesday, Novo Nordisk introduced an unexpectedly sturdy third quarter, fueled by the discharge of its weight problems drug Wegovy within the U.S. earlier this summer time. The drug’s reputation has made it laborious to get for some potential sufferers, nonetheless, since there may be an ongoing provide scarcity of it—a scarcity that most likely gained’t clear up till early subsequent yr.
Based on the Related Press, the Danish pharmaceutical firm reported that its third-quarter gross sales grew by 15% relative to final yr. The corporate was clear that Wegovy performed an enormous half in that development, together with gross sales of its kind 2 diabetes medication. “Within the US, the preliminary demand for Wegovy has considerably exceeded our expectations, underscoring the excessive unmet want for folks residing with weight problems,” stated Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, Novo Nordrisk president and CEO, within the firm’s announcement of its earnings.
In scientific trials, Wegovy reduced the typical physique weight of individuals residing with weight problems by round 15% in a yr’s time, when in comparison with placebo. That’s a level of weight reduction that hasn’t been seen with older anti-obesity medication, and solely the simplest (and everlasting) bariatric surgical procedures are thought to supply larger weight reduction. The energetic ingredient in Wegovy, known as semaglutide, is identical present in its current diabetes medication Ozempic and Rybelsus. Semaglutide is an artificial model of GLP-1, a hormone vital to our regulation of starvation and metabolism; the synthesized model can keep in our system longer than native GLP-1. Each Wegovy and Ozempic are taken through a weekly subcutaneous injection, although Wegovy makes use of the next dose of semaglutide.
Wegovy’s trial outcomes had been sufficient to persuade the FDA to approve the drug this June, making it the primary new weight problems drug in virtually a decade. Many researchers have been vocal about their hopes that Wegovy could usher in a brand new period of weight problems medication. Trials of different GLP-1 and comparable hormonal medication are ongoing, a few of which have proven much more pronounced weight reduction outcomes. On the identical time, some researchers and advocates have been much less enthused, arguing that weight problems shouldn’t be medicalized as a illness and that these medication might pose unknown long-term dangers, together with unhealthy cycles of weight reduction and achieve. One examine by Novo Nordisk has proven that individuals who cease taking Wegovy after a number of months are likely to regain a lot of their misplaced weight inside a yr.
The drug isn’t with out its side-effects, both, which embody gastrointestinal signs like nausea, constipation, and diarrhea. In clinical trials, about 6.8% of sufferers stopped utilizing the drug because of these antagonistic occasions. And even some sufferers publicly supportive of semaglutide later stopped taking it as a consequence of signs they skilled as their dose bought greater. The drug, like all present GLP-1 medication, carries a warning in regards to the potential elevated danger of a uncommon type of thyroid most cancers, and people with a household historical past of the most cancers are explicitly suggested towards utilizing it.
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“My query could be: Does this drug—does it truly make folks more healthy? And I don’t suppose we now have a solution to that.” Harriet Brown, an writer and journalist who has written in regards to the science of weight reduction, informed Gizmodo earlier this yr quickly after the debut of Wegovy.
One factor that’s clear is that the demand for Wegovy has outstripped its provide. Novo Nordisk has admitted that it might not have the ability to sustain, including that it might doubtless take till early 2022 for the availability to stabilize and that some sufferers “are experiencing an approximate one month or longer delay in filling prescriptions for Wegovy.” One other downside has been the dearth of constant insurance coverage protection for the drug, which might price as a lot as $1,600 per thirty days. Public payers reminiscent of Medicare is not going to cowl the drug, as a consequence of a current rule regarding weight reduction remedies, and only some personal insurers have explicitly stated that they are going to cowl it. In response, the corporate has been providing six-month waivers to some insured sufferers that may cap the drug’s out-of-pocket prices at $25 a month, although the long-term image of protection remains to be in flux.
Regardless of a few of the uncertainty surrounding Wegovy, the corporate goes all in. Final month, it launched an advert marketing campaign starring Queen Latifah that was ostensibly framed as a technique to elevate consciousness of weight problems remedies, forward of a extra direct marketing campaign for Wegovy scheduled for early subsequent yr. Novo Nordisk has additionally formed a partnership with CVS Well being to debut a “personalised diet teaching program” at varied CVS areas for many who have been prescribed an weight problems remedy.