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Tag: Wegovy

  • WeightWatchers launches program for users of Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs

    WeightWatchers launches program for users of Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs

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    WeightWatchers has started a new chapter as the 60-year company looks to tap the fast-growing market for people using prescription weight-loss drugs.

    The diet company this week launched WeightWatchers GLP-1, a subscription program focused on the health and nutrition needs of patients using Ozempic and Wegovy, two brands of semaglutide, a diabetes drug that has exploded in popularity for its effectiveness in helping people lose weight. 

    With its new membership offering, WeightWatchers is hoping to stay relevant in a rapidly changing industry. Widespread use of Ozempic and Wegovy has upended the diet industry and even changed consumer eating habits. An estimated 24 million people, or 7% of the U.S. population, could be using the drugs by 2035, according to a report by Morgan Stanley Research.

    “The WeightWatchers GLP-1 Program helps members establish and adhere to healthy habits while the food noise from GLP-1 medications is reduced,” Gary Foster, chief scientific officer at WeightWatchers, said in a statement announcing the program.

    GLP-1 refers to a gut hormone that is key to how semaglutide works with the brain to suppress appetite. While Ozempic and Wegovy are both brandname equivalents of semaglutide, only Wegovy is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for chronic weight management. Yet off-label use of Ozempic is common among those who lack insurance coverage for Wegovy.


    Weight loss drug Wegovy cut risk of serious heart problems by 20%, study finds

    03:18

    “A large portion of people do not have insurance coverage for weight-management medications, but they might for Ozempic,” said Kimberly Gudzune, M.D., in an article on WeightWatchers’ website.

    The program, developed by a team of scientists, dietitians, fitness experts and others specializing in obesity, is designed to help members use the new anti-obesity medications, which can lead to rapid changes in weight. Offerings include daily nutrition and activity targets, including weight training to help subscribers maintain muscle mass as they shed pounds. 

    “What we’ve seen is that people taking GLP-1 medications need help with a different set of behavioral challenges in comparison to people not on these medications,” Foster said. “In the context of a reduced appetite, large weight losses, and a significant loss in muscle, it is important to help people focus on dietary protein and activity to minimize the loss of muscle mass.”

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  • A ‘game-changing’ study backs Wegovy use to cut heart attacks and strokes: ‘This is not just about weight and appearance’

    A ‘game-changing’ study backs Wegovy use to cut heart attacks and strokes: ‘This is not just about weight and appearance’

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    Novo Nordisk A/S unveiled details from a closely watched study that support use of Wegovy, its blockbuster weight-loss drug, to cut heart attacks and strokes in obesity patients with a history of cardiovascular disease.

    People taking the highest dose of Wegovy saw a drop in blood sugar levels and inflammation — two harbingers of heart disease — that help explain the 20% reduction in cardiovascular events that Novo reported in August. While none of the patients had diabetes, two-thirds started the study with blood sugar levels in the prediabetic range, which is associated with a higher risk of heart disease and death. Patients also saw significant reductions in blood pressure.

    Three-quarters of patients had suffered heart attacks before the study began and a quarter had heart failure. In this highly vulnerable population, the results help cement the argument for using Novo’s drug as a heart treatment alongside statins and blood pressure therapies. Patients on Wegovy also lost weight in the trial.

    The results, presented on Saturday at the American Heart Association’s annual conference in Philadelphia, are “game-changing,” Eugene Yang, the chair of the American College of Cardiology’s prevention section, said in an interview. The room at the city’s Convention Center erupted into several rounds of applause when the data were presented.

    Heart disease is the number one killer in the US and accounts for about a third of deaths globally. While obesity is known to raise the risk for such ailments, Novo’s trial was designed to show whether Wegovy could ward off future heart attacks and strokes in people with established cardiovascular disease.

    Novo said it will seek expanded US approval for reducing risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with a body mass index, or BMI, of 27 or higher and established cardiovascular disease.

    Read More: All About the New Obesity Drugs Causing a Big Stir

    “Increasingly, physicians are understanding that this is not just about weight and appearance,” Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, Novo’s chief executive officer, said in an interview on Friday before the details were released. “It’s about real health benefits.”

    Weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy, which increased sales more than 700% last quarter, have become a phenomenon this year. Celebrities are touting their benefits, while investors handicap how much they will disrupt a wide swath of sectors that includes apparel companies, restaurants and packaged food producers. Novo is already struggling to keep up with demand. And competition is increasing with Eli Lilly & Co. just receiving approval for its weight-loss drug, Zepbound.

    However, the drugs are expensive. Zepbound will cost about $1,050 for a month’s supply, which is cheaper than Wegovy’s monthly list price of roughly $1,350. The cost is a barrier to widespread access, Yang said. Based on the trial results, to prevent one heart attack or cardiovascular death, 67 people will need to be treated with Wegovy for almost three years and four months, according to a Bloomberg analysis. At list prices, this would cost $3.8 million.

    Along with reducing weight, blood sugar control and anti-inflammatory effects are likely what’s driving the benefit for heart disease shown in the study, Martin Holst Lange, Novo’s development chief, said in an interview. In the trial of more than 17,600 overweight and obese adults who were 45 and older, taking Wegovy lowered body weight by an average of 9.4% over two years, compared to a less than 1% loss in the placebo group. The treatment group also saw reduced weight circumference and blood pressure that’s often associated with shedding pounds.

    At the same time, blood sugar fell into a healthy range in two-thirds of those treated. That was enough to ward off diabetes in about 70% of patients. C-reactive protein, a liver product that’s linked to inflammation, fell about 40% among those taking Wegovy.

    Only 28% of the patients in the trial were women and just 4% were Black, meaning the results may not translate to those populations, according to the ACC’s Yang. About 17% of the patients in the trial stopped taking Wegovy due to side effects. The most common cause was gastrointestinal issues, which were responsible for most of the discontinuations.

    — With assistance from Robert Langreth

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    Madison Muller, Naomi Kresge, Bloomberg

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  • FDA updates Ozempic label with potential blocked intestines side effect, also reported with Wegovy and Mounjaro

    FDA updates Ozempic label with potential blocked intestines side effect, also reported with Wegovy and Mounjaro

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    Weight-loss drugs can have side effects


    Health officials raise concern about weight-loss drugs’ possible side effects

    05:19

    The label for the diabetes drug Ozempic — which has become popular for weight loss — now acknowledges reports of blocked intestines following use of the medication. The change comes after the Food and Drug Administration greenlighted a series of updates from drugmaker Novo Nordisk for its product. 

    Ozempic now joins other products in this booming class of so-called GLP-1 agonist medications which acknowledge increased reports of what doctos call ileus, or a blockage in the intestines. 

    Weight loss drug Wegovy, which is also an injection of semaglutide manufactured by Novo Nordisk, acknowledges reports of ileus on its label as well, as does Mounjaro, a diabetes medication from Eli Lilly.

    However, the FDA stopped short of directly blaming the potentially life-threatening condition on the drug.

    “Because these reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to drug exposure,” the label reads.

    The FDA has received 8,571 reports of gastrointestinal disorders after use of semaglutide medications, which includes both Ozempic and Wegovy, according to data published by the regulator through June 30. 

    Ileus is specifically mentioned as a reaction in 33 cases listed on the FDA’s dashboard of people taking semaglutide, including two deaths. 

    Both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are facing a lawsuit over claims that the medications can cause a similar condition called gastroparesis, or paralysis of the stomach, which stops food from reaching the small intestine despite there being no blockage.

    Spokespeople for Novo Nordisk and the FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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  • Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs boost pharmacy sales at Rite Aid

    Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs boost pharmacy sales at Rite Aid

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    Rite Aid Corp. said Thursday that its fiscal first-quarter pharmacy sales got a boost from a new class of drug.

    Pharmacy sales, which rose 3.4% from a year ago, were boosted by higher sales of Ozempic and other GLP-1 receptor agonists, which are used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

    The higher sales did not translate into profit, however.

    “As the cost of these drugs is also high, the impact of the increase in volume of these drugs on our gross profit dollars is minimal,” Rite Aid Chief Financial Officer Matthew Schroeder told analysts on the company’s earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript.

    Still, the company
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    +2.96%
    cheered investors by raising its full-year revenue guidance due to the sales bump from Ozempic and other high-dollar GLP-1 drugs. It now expects revenue of $22.6 billion to $23 billion, ahead of the FactSet consensus of $22.3 billion.

    Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, which are made by Novo Nordisk
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    +0.17%

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    and Mounjaro, which is made by Eli Lilly & Co.
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    have become so popular in the U.S. that supplies have at times run short and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been forced to warn patients against using knockoff versions.

    The drugs are administered by injection and mimic the effects of GLP-1, a gut hormone that can help control blood-sugar levels and reduce appetite. GLP stands for glucagon-like peptide.

    Ozempic, Rybelsus and Mounjaro have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of Type 2 diabetes, while Wegovy is approved for people with obesity and for certain people with excess weight combined with weight-related medical problems. 

    Last year, more than 5 million prescriptions for Ozempic, Mounjaro, Rybelsus or Wegovy were written for weight management, up from 230,000 in 2019, according to data and analytics firm Komodo Health.

    Obesity drugs could be a $54 billion market by 2030, up from $2.4 billion in 2022, Morgan Stanley said in a report last year. Reports of people who take GLP-1 drugs seeing improvements in addictive behaviors such as smoking and drinking have lately amplified interest in the medications.  

    For more, read: The dark side of the weight-loss-drug craze: eating disorders, medication shortages, dangerous knockoffs

    Drug companies, including Lilly and Pfizer Inc.
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    are now working to develop treatments in the form of pills that could be more convenient alternatives to the injectables.

    See now: Weight-loss drugs in development aim to replace injections with pills

    Rite Aid’s overall numbers surprised on the upside, as its loss was narrower than expected and revenue beat the consensus estimate.

    For more, see: Rite Aid’s stock soars 7.5% after company surprises with earnings that are less bad than feared

    Eleanor Laise contributed.

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  • Dieters Who Use Scarce Diabetes Drug Ozempic Could Face Side Effects

    Dieters Who Use Scarce Diabetes Drug Ozempic Could Face Side Effects

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    By Dennis Thompson 

    HealthDay Reporter

    WEDNESDAY, Feb. 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Mila Clarke started taking Ozempic in 2020 to help manage her diabetes, but was pleasantly surprised to find herself soon shedding pounds.

    “I was like, this is really weird because I’m not having to try very hard to do this,” said Clarke, who has been diagnosed with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes and chronicles her diabetes journey on her Hangry Woman blog. “And as I kept going on, I kept noticing that the weight was falling off.”

    Then the side effects started — most worryingly, a racing and palpitating heartbeat.

    “I could be laying down in bed and my heart rate, like resting heart rate, would be 120 beats per minute,” the sort of rate associated with exercise, Clarke said in an interview with HealthDay Now. “It was really having an effect on my heart rate, and that was really terrifying.”

    First approved to treat diabetes under the brand name Ozempic, the drug semaglutide received federal approval in June 2021 to also be prescribed as a weight-loss medication — with the brand name Wegovy.

    People interested in dropping pounds — either for their health or for vanity’s sake — flooded the market for semaglutide, making it difficult to impossible for people with diabetes to fill prescriptions needed to manage their condition.

    But semaglutide comes with some troubling side effects that people might not have considered in their search for the perfect body, experts say.

    These can range from nausea and vomiting to premature aging of the face, as well as heart problems.

    The drug is a synthetic form of a naturally occurring gut hormone, Dr. Holly Lofton, an obesity medicine specialist with NYU Langone Health in New York City, told HealthDay Now.

    “It goes to different areas of the brain and blocks hunger signals, it goes to your stomach and slows down the rate your stomach empties, and it hormonally helps your body be more sensitive to the insulin that you produce, thus helping your fat cells shrink,” Lofton explained.

    Because of the way it works, semaglutide’s most commonly reported side effects involve the gastrointestinal system, Lofton said.

    Those were the first that Clarke experienced.

    Scary side effects, like a racing heartbeat

    “You start out on a very low dose to have your body get used to it,” Clarke said. “You can get a lot of nausea, diarrhea, you can feel dizzy.”

    When Clarke advanced to the therapeutic dose of semaglutide, she developed heart palpitations and tachycardia (racing heartbeat).

    “It got to a point where it was like I could feel my heart beating out of my chest,” Clarke said. “It would wake me up in the middle of the night, and I was kind of panicking because I was like, this doesn’t feel right. It feels very scary.”

    Clarke didn’t mention it, but other people who take semaglutide appear to develop what’s becoming known as “Ozempic face,” in which rapid weight loss causes a person’s face to look gaunt, saggy and prematurely aged.

    “When you lose weight so acutely and quickly, you see more of a global facial wasting,” Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank, a New York City dermatologist, told NBC’s TODAY show.

    “It’s not just a wrinkle we’re seeing in one area or a heaviness around the eyes,” Frank continued. “We’re seeing it in the temples, the jaw line, around the mouth, under the eyes.”

    Despite her side effects, Clarke stuck with Ozempic for about a year because the drug was very effective in controlling her diabetes and helping her lose weight.

    Clarke dropped about 10 pounds within a month. By the time she decided to stop taking Ozempic a year later, she’d lost 35 pounds.

    “It was really tempting to continue it because it’s such an easy medication to take,” Clarke said. “It’s once weekly, it’s an injection, it does not hurt that badly at all, barely feels like a pinch.”

    “I just felt like, I kind of want to continue this because I’m seeing really good results on it. But then for the flip side, it was like, even though I’m seeing these great results, I feel awful all the time,” Clarke added. “I don’t feel good, I don’t have any energy, I feel sick and nauseous. And that’s not quality of life.”

    Clarke was worried that she’d regain the weight she lost after she stopped taking Ozempic, but that wasn’t what happened.

    “I actually ended up maintaining my weight for a little while and then even losing a little bit more. So total, I lost about 50 pounds,” Clarke said.

    As demand exceeds supply, some with diabetes go without

    Clarke has described the semaglutide shortages as “really frustrating” on her blog, particularly for people who need the drug to manage their diabetes.

    Wegovy contains a higher dose of semaglutide, because that’s the dose needed to treat obesity as approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

    Ever since Wegovy arrived on the market, manufacturer Novo Nordisk has struggled to meet demand, prompting off-label prescription of Ozempic for weight loss.

    “There are people who are using it for weight loss for health purposes, and I think that is amazing,” Clarke said. “Especially with my own experience, I know how helpful it can be.”

    But social media has spurred demand by promoting semaglutide as a miracle weight-loss drug, Lofton said.

    Wegovy is meant to help people with weight problems so bad that the extra pounds are harming their health, but semaglutide is instead being used to help people achieve the “perfect body.”

    Clarke noted an “Ozempic challenge” circulating on TikTok.

    “It’s people who are at a pretty normal weight,” Clarke said of the TikTok videos. “Maybe they have like 10 pounds that they want to lose because of some reason. From what I’ve seen, it’s usually vanity purposes.”

    “And so they’re using Ozempic, and I think that has a really big impact on people with diabetes because we’re not able to get the drug at this point,” Clarke said. “There are so many shortages, and there’s a lack of production for Ozempic with this increased demand because people are seeing that it works for weight loss very well.”

    Lofton said that both uses of the drug are legitimate, and what’s really needed is for Novo Nordisk to resolve its production bottleneck and for insurers to cover semaglutide treatment.

    Novo Nordisk has promised to resolve the semaglutide shortages within the first few months of 2023, Lofton said.

    “We have about 40 million people with obesity/overweight, and we have about 11 million people in the U.S. with diabetes,” Lofton said.

    “If the companies can’t meet the demand — which I’m glad the demand is great and people know about these drugs — then we really need to reevaluate how these pharmaceutical companies are allowing us, as well as insurance companies are allowing us, to have access to these much-needed drugs for multiple conditions,” Lofton said.

    More information

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on shortages of Wegovy and Ozempic.

     

     

    SOURCES: Mila Clarke, blogger and activist; Holly Lofton, MD, obesity medicine specialist, NYU Langone Health, New York City

     

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