Skip to main content

Drug Sema-ntics: Paying $15K to Save $5-10K !?

Why is it that so many "solutions" to chronic disease are good-news/bad-news?

Take great news about the "miracle-drug" semaglutide.  Originally for people with type 2 diabetes, a recent study shows it can reduce weight by 10-20%+ for those with obesity--with minimal side-effects, and requiring only a weekly subcutaneous (just-under-the-skin) self-administered injection.  That amount of weight loss is also often enough to reverse prediabetes & even type 2 diabetes!

So what's the bad news?  

Semaglutide is a proprietary biologic pharmaceutical.  It costs close to $1000/month for the smaller dose needed to manage diabetes.  Extrapolating this, the larger dose used in the study to reduce obesity could cost $2000+/month!  Reducing the cost substantially could be a challenge.  Biologics are typically more complex & expensive to manufacture than traditional pharmaceuticals.

And BTW: if you stop taking semaglutide after losing that weight, you will tend to gain it back again :(   So we're talking a lifetime of expensive meds--not just enough to lose excess weight.  And you generally need to keep weight off to sustainably improve your health after losing weight.

Given that chronic diseases on average cost $5-10K/person/year more than not having chronic conditions, the semaglutide "solution" is likely in many/most cases to cost more than it saves.  Yet semaglutide is a standout, with no viable better alternative. 

We need to stop assuming that a miracle drug will eventually save us from preventable chronic diseases.  Developing healthier activity & nutrition habits for the whole population K-12 is a practical low-cost solution that we can implement now.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is it a “Miracle Drug”?...if it Costs a Fortune and Creates Lifelong Dependency...&...Saggy Faces!?

[It’s been a while since our last blog post.  A lot has happened since– including some “miracles” ! So we’re going to do two posts in a row…] Normally we should all be happy about miracle drugs... shouldn't we ? Yes, there is lots of upside from taking semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy), tirzepatide (Montjaro)--and upcoming new, even-more-miraculous drugs TBD:  losing huge amounts of weight quickly, a much lower risk of diabetes–and probably less heart disease and other chronic conditions as well.  But what if the “miracle” requires:   $200-300/week, with a lifetime cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars…  a drug that you can never quit…because if you stop taking it, you gain back all the weight it helped you lose–not to mention the chronic diseases which the drugs kept at bay… and it leaves your face (and the rest of your skin?) sagging …    (plus, it’s so new at such high dosages– who knows what happens after years of use…? ) No doubt, in spit...
4 comments
Read more

Both/And: Personal & School & Social Responsibility for Health

Many people are promoting a false dichotomy for who/what to “blame” for decades of pervasive inactivity & unhealthy nutrition--the key preventable factors which have led to the majority of adults developing chronic disease. Some believe that people with preventable chronic diseases made a series of unhealthy choices for decades, for which they need to accept personal responsibility for the consequences. On the other side, a growing number of policymakers focus on the “social determinants of health.”  In other words, there are many things beyond your control, which impact what you eat & drink and how active you are.  This includes factors such as your family, neighborhood, school, employer, transportation, public safety, housing, community layout, etc. etc.  It’s those external social factors which determine your health destiny.   Actually, the personal and social are inextricably connected--not opposite ends of the spectrum.  Let’s consider the role...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Mirage of Child Health Improvement in Arizona

Fasten your statistical seatbelts & prepare for a "wonky" longer-than-normal post: New National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) data claim an improvement in child obesity in Arizona over the last five years--to the extent that AZ supposedly now has the 2nd lowest child obesity for 10-17 year olds in the USA !?  Per the NSCH-based rankings, this implies that Arizona has less child obesity & much better trends than even perennial health leaders Colorado or Utah--in spite of those states having much less poverty & much lower adult obesity than Arizona.  Few states except perhaps North Dakota(!?) & Nebraska(!?) show as much of a decline over the last five years (2016-2020) among children, according to these NSCH data. These parent-self-reported statistics contradict the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data , which are self-reported by high school students themselves--and which do not show an improvement in teen obesity in Arizona (or in Nebraska or North D...
Post a Comment
Read more