New drug Retatrutide outshines Ozempic and helps people lose quarter of weight

Re:New drug Retatrutide outshines Ozempic and helps people l... by hi-v-rocknroll on Thursday May 16, 2024 @06:47PM (#40384250)

Sigh. Misinformation abounds. Ozempic is a lower dose (0.5/1/2 mg) of semaglutide weekly injection for type-2 diabetes ONLY. IT'S NOT FOR WEIGHT LOSS but it may happen as a beneficial side-effect. Wegovy IS a higher dose (1.7/2.4 mg) semaglutide weekly injection for weight loss due to life-threatening or health-impacting obesity. Rybelsus (7mg) is the oral form of Ozempic, also for type-2 diabetes but not for morbid obesity. There is a 50 mg oral formulation for obesity that has been approved but not yet been released by Novo Nordisk.

There is overt and systematic discrimination in the US against treating morbid obesity. Just one example: Medicare refuses to cover Wegovy, even if it's due to the side-effects of another medication you need to survive.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:New drug Retatrutide outshines Ozempic and helps people l... by mensetmanusman on Thursday May 16, 2024 @10:17PM (#40385680)

Half the country is obese and it currently has to be taken for life at a cost of about $100k per person, once the cost is two orders cheaper after patents run out it will make more sense.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:New drug Retatrutide outshines Ozempic and helps people l... by hi-v-rocknroll on Thursday May 16, 2024 @10:49PM (#40385876)

The cost in France for Wegovy is $90/month or $1080/year. In Germany, it's $328/month or $3936/year.

VSL for an average middle-aged person is on the order of $2M USD. The QALY advantage makes it clear that it's a net positive, even at this crazy price. And the prices US patients pay for many medications is well beyond absurd, it's unfair gouging. There should be a law: US retail medication prices cannot exceed the currency-adjusted prices of all other per-country average market prices by more than 10%.

[ Parent | on HN ]