“Outrageously” priced weight-loss drugs could bankrupt US health care
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/05/outrageously-priced-weight-loss-drugs-could-bankrupt-us-health-care/?comments=1&comments-page=1
“Outrageously” priced weight-loss drugs could bankrupt US health care
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/05/outrageously-priced-weight-loss-drugs-could-bankrupt-us-health-care/?comments=1&comments-page=1
37 comments
Call me crazy, but maybe weight loss drugs shouldn’t be covered by Medicare/Medicaid.
If Novo Nordisk was a US company it would be OK though.
The Republicans will.
> A study by researchers at Yale estimated that drugs like Wegovy can be profitably manufactured for less than $5 per month.
This is just absurd. They can make a profit at $5 / month and even with rebates and discounts, US patients are charged $800 / month but only $187 / mo in Norway where the company is located.
Of all the things to worry about I think I’ll place the well-being of our healthcare companies last.
Just call it insulin and no one will bat an eye at the insane markup
Is drug prices should be locked to the average price in 5 European nations or you can’t fucking sell them here. Sick of the US subsidizing drug maker profits for the rest of the fucking world to keep prices lower.
Typical US. Makes a virtue of gluttony and greed then complains about the consequences.
I have a feeling US healthcare will be just fine.
I work in retail pharmacy and we lose money on each of these weight loss injectables. It’s crazy how much the manufactures are charging for them.
With the cost of food sky rocketing…. It might be a problem that solves itself soon.
Bankrupt who?
Bankrupting insurance companies?
^no
^stop
^don’t
Healthcare is a right and should be generously covered by our increases in efficiency over the years. We make plenty of money so that people could just walk in and get some help, and when you come across a person arguing against that I suggest establishing some healthy boundaries.
As long as Oprah can afford it we all can. Right?
RIGHT!?!?!!!
#MakeBigPharmaGoBankrupt
At the moment the pricing has more to do with supply then demand. There is a HUGE shortage of these types of drugs at the moment and until the supply matchs then there is just no way to lower the cost. Believe me no one absolutely no one thinks these prices are sustainable and the cost will go down in the medium turn. Manfacturing cost is not the issue here but supply constraints are at the moment.
There are plenty of cheaper ways of getting these drugs. Most insurances don’t cover them right now, but an entire industry of telehealth and compounding pharmacies has stepped in. As more GLP-1 drugs the market (the pipeline is diverse and deep), prices will crater
Wait a minute. Doesn’t obesity *cost* the health care system money? By reducing obesity and all the illnesses and complications it produces, won’t weight-loss drugs *save* the health care system money in the long run? In the short term, sure, paying for the drugs is expensive. But think of the money saved on dialysis, heart surgeries, joint replacements, etc. I would think the weight loss drugs would eventually pay for themselves many times over.
Good.
The market for these things are going to crash when we start getting thousands of people who have to be fed a liquid diet through a tube.
But the massive obesity rates in the US and the enormous health care costs they incur are fine.
“The head of the CBO said that the drugmakers would have to slash prices of their weight-loss drugs by 90 percent to “get in the ballpark” of not increasing the national deficit.”
“In the US, the estimated net price of Wegovy is $809 per month. In Denmark, the price is $186 per month. A study by researchers at Yale estimated that drugs like Wegovy can be profitably manufactured for less than $5 per month.”
This problem is three fold:
The American diet;
The greed of pharmaceuticals; and
The monopoly of our food industry.
If drug companies were required to price their drugs appropriately, say $80 per month, a 90% reduction, the profit still far exceeds the $5 per month noted above for profitability.
The American diet speaks for itself. People sadly self medicate with food, or mindlessly consume highly processed, over salted and high sugar diets that cause all sorts of health problems that we as a nation pay for. I don’t see this changing as there is a lack of education about nutrition and people would rather just take a drug the doctor hands them.
A very few corporations have a monopoly of our food supply. These corporations put profits before all else in their sick version of Farm to Table, where farmers are thrown a small fraction of profits. These corporations pour $Millions into political contributions and lobbying by PACs to ensure they stay in power.
Are our drugs “outrageously” priced? Yes, because we allow it.
Is it too much to ask that Americans eat healthy and exercise a bit?
This is kinda misleading. The drugs themselves (Semaglutide aka Ozempic and Tirzepatide aka Mounjaro) are cheap, but they need to be injected. The 4 autoinjector “pens” that come with each monthly box are definitely not cheap. Plus those things just can’t fail….. you don’t really want corners cut with regards to manufacturing them.
So while the “juice” is cheap Lilly and Novo sell them in a safe/convenient way to inject them at home w/o a nurse or needle skills. There is a price for the tech.
It’s insane that news like this will cause a significantly less amount of outrage over whatever Trump says at his next campaign rally. It’s almost as if Trump is being propped up as a threat so everyone is so mad at him and scared of him that nobody realizes we are still getting f’ed over by a system that neither party has any intention of changing.
I haven’t read the article, but in almost 0% of cases will insurance cover these drugs for weight loss, so the argument is theoretical at best. That said, if they did cover the drugs, think of how many people wouldn’t get diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, etc.?? Preventative medicine could save US healthcare a lot of money.
Wow they found a new way to destroy health care.
Imagine if one of these companies halved their price. They could corner the entire U.S. market. That said, you can get Saxenda out of Canada for about $550 – way cheaper than wegovy – and it costs even less if you don’t need the full dose.
Dude the amount of Americans die each year from being FAT. Is astronomical.
The government moved mountains for Covid but you potentially have a cure for like 70% of deaths in America. And what does our favorite corporations do.
TAX your ass so you can’t afford it and die. Yay so fun.
It’s only outrageous because they haven’t bought their own selection of Senators and Congressmen.
They haven’t paid their fair share to corruption as all the other Pharma firms have. Everything in the US health care system is outrageous.
You can pay for some procedures in Europe, pay it out of pocket and all travel and expenses will be less than your Co Pay in the US.
I am not saying it’s right, but the issue is another one.
Let’s be clear: for-profit medicine is fundamentally turning ill-health into a profit center. These companies do not want obesity solved. All those follow-on diseases are so profitable they are terrified of obesity being solved. For-profit medicine is not humane.
And bankrupt those who pay out of pocket for these drugs, like my mildly overweight sister who is underwater on her mortgage but still decided to drop a thou a month on Ozempic instead of not eating bags of candy every night while watching TV. She had to go to the ER for nonstop vomiting. My sympathy for my sister and healthcare companies are approximately equal.
“In the US, the estimated net price (after rebates) of Wegovy is $809 per month. In Denmark, the price is $186 per month. A study by researchers at Yale estimated that drugs like Wegovy can be profitably manufactured for less than $5 per month.”
Are we starting to think that maybe the free market system and patent protection in America has gone amiss.
So it looks like the insurance industry might start lobbying for cheaper drug prices.
Or Americans could just not eat three pounds of meat and fries every day.
Now do cancer drugs.