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Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

independent.co.uk

21–30 of 301 posts

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#21

> When someone takes an anti-obesity medication like Mounjaro, the amount of fat the body wants to maintain is re-regulated, usually to a lower weight. “When you take the medication away, that defended fat mass goes back up, and weight is regained,” Jastreboff said. “In order to continue to maintain the new re-regulated defended fat mass, and weight reduction, you have to continue taking the medication.” This doesn’t…

That “yo-yo effect” is frequently seen with people who try to lose significant amounts of weight.

If you take the perspective of someone who has struggled with weight loss in the past (especially if prior results were not great and had trouble keeping the weight off anyways) - it’s not so much of a deal with the devil, if the drug actually works.

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#22

> When someone takes an anti-obesity medication like Mounjaro, the amount of fat the body wants to maintain is re-regulated, usually to a lower weight. “When you take the medication away, that defended fat mass goes back up, and weight is regained,” Jastreboff said. “In order to continue to maintain the new re-regulated defended fat mass, and weight reduction, you have to continue taking the medication.” This doesn’t…

The real problem is not as a weight loss drug, but as a way to regulate diabetes. My girlfriend is on it, because the other medications don't work outside of insulin which has it's own difficulties. The sudden raise in price and her insurance refusing to pay for it means she either has to do it out of pocket or try and switch to something else which may or may not work. The real problem with using it as a weight loss…

> The drug doesn't fix you wanting the food

Shouldn't it _eventually_ have a pavlovian effect where you associate all food with nausea?

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#23

> When someone takes an anti-obesity medication like Mounjaro, the amount of fat the body wants to maintain is re-regulated, usually to a lower weight. “When you take the medication away, that defended fat mass goes back up, and weight is regained,” Jastreboff said. “In order to continue to maintain the new re-regulated defended fat mass, and weight reduction, you have to continue taking the medication.” This doesn’t…

The real problem is not as a weight loss drug, but as a way to regulate diabetes. My girlfriend is on it, because the other medications don't work outside of insulin which has it's own difficulties. The sudden raise in price and her insurance refusing to pay for it means she either has to do it out of pocket or try and switch to something else which may or may not work. The real problem with using it as a weight loss…

> Eat too much and you get sick (seriously like 2 bites and you're done eating).

While I’ve know some people experience more severe GI issues or nausea with the drug, this is quite the exaggeration. A drug that made it difficult or impossible to actually consume enough food to survive (more than “two bites”) would be wildly unsafe to prescribe.

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#24
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume it's some kind of health insurance bullshit pricing, where they never really expect people to buy it for $1000 a month.

The US healthcare system is systematically broken. I've sworn off doing business in that sector because the cultural attitude that insurance companies have towards payment has infected everything. You can't trust anything anyone says about how much they will pay for something. Some kind of drawn-out, adversarial process around payment collection is the expectation. Sorry for that rant I am a bit traumatized by my exp…

It is absolutely insane what insurance companies will actually pay for - mine was fulling willing to pay $1250 for a simple ultrasound procedure at a hospital facility vs $150 at a specialty clinic. I made the smart decision to have it done at the clinic but it isn't like I'm going to be rewarded for that decision by paying lower premiums.

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#26
Cynically speaking, main reason people lose weight, is looks and advantage in dating it gives (unless they are morbidly obese and at risk of severe illness or death due to that, of course). If there was a $25 a month drug that lets everyone become skinny, then what's the point? Advantage will cease to exist.

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#27

The obese are mad at the diabetics, the diabetics are mad at the obese, while they should be mad at their failure of politicians who won’t regulate the drug market like any other functioning democracy. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so tragic

[flagged]

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#28

The obese are mad at the diabetics, the diabetics are mad at the obese, while they should be mad at their failure of politicians who won’t regulate the drug market like any other functioning democracy. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so tragic

[flagged]

That doesn’t explain why the rate of obesity has increased so dramatically over just a few decades. Like most widespread changes there are many root causes simply producing a massive surplus of food being an obvious requirement.

If you’re selling food, getting people to consume more is simply more profitable. Various mechanisms kick in after someone gains weight to maintain that weight. Which is why the drug mentioned can be so effective impacts the underlying feedback loop.

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#29

The obese are mad at the diabetics, the diabetics are mad at the obese, while they should be mad at their failure of politicians who won’t regulate the drug market like any other functioning democracy. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so tragic

[flagged]

Yeah and depressed people choose to be sad.

Re: Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month

#30

> When someone takes an anti-obesity medication like Mounjaro, the amount of fat the body wants to maintain is re-regulated, usually to a lower weight. “When you take the medication away, that defended fat mass goes back up, and weight is regained,” Jastreboff said. “In order to continue to maintain the new re-regulated defended fat mass, and weight reduction, you have to continue taking the medication.” This doesn’t…

>“In order to continue to maintain the new re-regulated defended fat mass, and weight reduction, you have to continue taking the medication.

I mean surely that can't be a 100% always the case, I would think it is either continue to take the medication or do a strenuous weight reduction program / eat less + exercise.

but why is that important, because some people might be so obese that they need to lose 25 lbs (maybe more, just following what was written) to get to a point where the exercise part of that equation is at all doable.

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