Re:Collapse of emergency healthcare in England may be costin...
by Scoundreller on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @08:09PM
(#32573347)
My guess is that it's now approved for obesity, a lot of drug plans in USA approve of it and that's led to a supply issue: https://www.novonordisk-us.com/products/product-supply-updat...
I wonder if metformin does the same thing, but the patent fell off too soon, so there just wasn't much marketing for its benefits to decision-makers.
metformin for 26 weeks lead to a net 6.6kg weight loss in non-diabetic obese patients (I would've preferred BMI reduction as the outcome measure, and a placebo-control arm, but can't have it all):
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23147210/
Semaglutide yielded net 12kg weight loss in 68 weeks
https://www.cfp.ca/content/67/11/842
Obviously it's diminishing returns over time, but shows how much a drug that's been on the market for decades has still been under-utilized.
However it's fairly new and fairly unknown yet. I suspect it will become a lot more popular over the next few years.
Interestingly, like Metformin, it's also a diabetes drug.