Why US Payers Aren’t Reimbursing Obesity Meds

Payers are restricting access to obesity drugs due to huge patient numbers and a wave of innovation in other areas    

Weight Scales
• Source: Shutterstock

Effective obesity drugs were a long time coming, but they have arrived amid a flurry of other treatment innovations, from new migraine therapies to gene therapies for sickle cell disease. This, combined with the sheer size of the obesity market, is forcing payers to severely restrict reimbursement.

“We don’t routinely cover GLP-1 agonists” like Novo Nordisk Pharma AG(semaglutide) or Eli Lilly and Company’s Zepbound (tirzepatide)...

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