There is still one milestone the companies have yet to reach: passing a bill that would reverse the long-standing ban on Medicare covering obesity drugs, which has floundered for 10 years. Here's more.
Dr. Angela Fitch, president of the Obesity Medicine Association and one of the doctors paid as a consultant for Novo, said company officials told her they didn’t predict the new drugs taking off the way they have.
Or as General Catalyst advisor Dr. Stephen Klasko put it: "Yes, they’re for obesity, but they’ve really become a lifestyle drug. If you’re in one of the clubs in Miami, where you used to talk about your plastic surgery, you’re now talking about which GLP-1 you’re on." In recent conversations with employers, weight care management startup Found's CEO Sara Jones Simmer said she was hearing about surges in healthcare spending.
And employers can’t pull the drugs off their formulary, denying coverage to those who need it. But at the same time, "if they don’t do anything about it, people are going to get on these medications that are designed to be taken in perpetuity, that cost, on average, $17,000 a year, and that could bankrupt especially a small employer," she said.
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