Weight Loss Drugs – New Fad

From Girish Modi, Decatur, GA

You have seen them in TV ads or heard them joke about the Oscars. They are weight loss drugs like Ozempic, which are weekly injections meant for diabetic patients who are obese. There are Ozempic parties everywhere. 

No wonder these drugs are $100 billion dollar business, because they cost $10,000 to $15,000 per year, potentially for the rest of someone’s life! Medicare does not cover it, private insurers don’t cover it; only Medicaid covers it up to a limit, with just 10 states covering it. 

Americans spend about $50 billion a year trying to lose weight. Saxena, a daily shot that costs $1,350 a month can help people lose about 5% of their body weight. 

Of only 10 percent of Medicare beneficiaries with obesity take Ozempic, it would cost around $27 billion a year.  Do you know the same drug cost only $90 a month in U.K. and Canada, but they cost more in America because of greedy pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Lilly and Novo which make them.

Drug companies charge as much as possible for as long as they can because they provide coupons to encourage patients to buy them just like grocery coupons. The government could make prices go down. But drug company Novo increased their lobbying spending by nearly 80 percent since it first launched its first obesity drug.

So, it is a no-win situation. Don’t you think it would be much cheaper and beneficial to fast once a week or skip a meal every day and lose weight instead of trying to lose weight via over-price drugs?

(This submission has not been edited)