Weight loss drugs: Too $$?

Here's the pricing I found:

Zepbound: 2.5mg = $104.70, 5mg = $149.70, 7.5mg = $179.70, 10mg = $209.70
Mounjaro: ALL DOSAGES = $323.93
Zepbound Auto-injector: ALL DOSAGES = $325.91

This is the Average Wholesale Price according to Medi-Span. You have to multiply by 4 to get the monthly cost, and the drug companies are the ones making all the money.
 
Thanks, @Health_Hustle. So, those prices are for a single dose, not a box of four? And what does 'wholesale' really mean? It doesn't seem to include any pharmacy markup, let alone what the insurance companies pay.
 
I saw a video of a woman crying because her $3,000/month in food stamps got cut after she bought a new luxury car. It would be cheaper to give those people GLP-1s. I see a lot of morbidly obese low-income people. We could save money on healthcare and food stamps if they took these drugs.
 
We could save money on OVERSIGHT to prevent fraud instead of recycling old stereotypes about people on food stamps. Affordable GLP-1s would pay for itself with the reduced healthcare costs from obesity. And if they were affordable for EVERYONE, nobody would resell them. But the pharmaceutical companies don't care about public health, so...
 
One study said it costs less than $5 to make a month's supply of Ozempic. Big pharma says it costs billions to research, and that's true. So, what's a fair price? It depends on the market. If it's a rare disease with a few thousand patients, it justifies higher prices. But GLP-1s have the biggest potential market ever. Billions of people worldwide. And they want you to take it forever. So, what's fair when you have that many customers? I think out-of-pocket should be $100 per month. That's still a big profit and pays for research quickly.
 
The markup is crazy. My issue is that I am paying a ton for Wegovy, for instance, and it doesn't seem sustainable. What happens down the road? Seems like abuse.
 
This might be a dumb question, but are people buying a huge amount of this and keeping it around a long time in their fridge? I saw a photo of a fridge packed with like $15k worth of meds!
 
Yeah, @Wolf_Cookie, people do stock up for various reasons... but be really careful about storing this stuff in the fridge door! The temp fluctuations can mess with the medication.
 
Started Ozempic April 2024, almost exactly a year later and down 100lbs! Tracked everything in Lose It app from day one, making sure calories and protein were enough for keeping it off. Want another 50 by year end. Had plateaus but kept consistent and got there. Haven't been in the 100s since 2017. Feels incredible.
 
From the piece: About 89% of all spending went to products approved for diabetes back in 2023. This means even though some work for weight loss too, diabetes use was really driving those costs.
 
My mom gets her Ozempic through Medicare, pays about forty-five bucks monthly since she's diabetic. Brand name Wegovy for weight loss was five hundred out of pocket for me. Insurance normally won't touch weight loss drugs unless you've got a diabetes diagnosis.
 
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