Tag Archives: GLP-1 RAs (Drug)

Tens of thousands of Americans will soon be forced by their heath insurance to switch from one popular obesity drug to another that produces less weight loss. It is the latest example of the consequences of secret deals between drugmakers and middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, that are hired by employers to oversee prescription coverage for Americans. Employers pay …

Do we really have free will when it comes to eating? It’s a vexing question that is at the heart of why so many people find it so difficult to stick to a diet. To get answers, one neuroscientist, Harvey J. Grill of the University of Pennsylvania, turned to rats and asked what would happen if he removed all of …

It’s easy to make a medical case for blockbuster weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, which have been shown to prevent heart attacks and strokes and save lives. But for the employers and government programs being asked to pay for the medications, the financial case for them is less clear. Are the drugs’ benefits worth their enormous cost? The …

By now, Ora Larson recognizes what’s happening. “It feels like you’re shaking inside,” she said. “I’m speeded up. I’m anxious.” If someone asks whether she would like a salad for lunch, she doesn’t know how to respond. She has had several such episodes this year, and they seem to be coming more frequently. “She stares and gets a gray color …

Novo Nordisk will cut the price of its blockbuster weight loss medication Wegovy to $499 per month for certain patients who pay using their own money instead of going through insurance, the drug maker said on Wednesday. The move could cause more patients to start taking the drug. But the impact stands to be limited, because the decision does not …

When Dr. C. Michael Gibson, a cardiologist at Harvard Medical School, goes to heart disease meetings, he can’t help noticing a change. “We will sit around at dinner and halfway through the meal, we will simultaneously push our plates away,” Dr. Gibson said. “We look at each other and laugh and say, ‘You, too?’” They share what is becoming an …

Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, capped off a somewhat turbulent 2024, reporting profit and revenue on Wednesday that comfortably beat Wall Street expectations. But the drugmaker said it expected sales growth to slow in 2025, as competition increases. Novo Nordisk retains its title as Europe’s most valuable company, but its share price has dropped about …

The idea was so tantalizing. Drugs in the GLP-1 class, which includes Wegovy and Ozempic, have proved miraculous in treating weight loss and other diseases. And some researchers hoped that the drugs could also help with some of the most difficult diseases to treat — those of the brain, like Parkinson’s. But now, at least for Parkinson’s, that hope seems …

Javier comes across as bewildered by the changes in his wife. He is grieving, he says, the loss of the woman he married, starting with her physical self. “I used to love feeling her body, her big body, next to me in bed, the softness of it. The extra tummy and extra booty was comforting and reassuring,” he says. “I …

That would slow the growth of the government’s spending on obesity drugs even as more people on Medicare started using them. New prices for the 10 drugs in the first round of price negotiations were announced last summer. Those prices will go into effect next year. Drugmakers were relieved that those cuts were not deeper. They have sued, unsuccessfully, to …