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

independent.co.uk

31–40 of 301 posts

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

#31
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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 mentione…

Americans on average eat 400-700 more calories per day than in the 1970's. That explains it pretty well.

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

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It seems strongly linked and such links are quickly extinguished. If there is a delay and randomness on getting sick it’ll be weakly linked and more durable.

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

#33

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.

Nearly all people can bathe regularly now but hygiene is still valued for dating and there's also the more important point regarding health than you're letting on. $25 a month is cheaper than insulin and far cheaper than open heart surgery.

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

#34
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 mentione…

Americans on average eat 400-700 more calories per day than in the 1970's. That explains it pretty well.

That’s simply restating the problem, the question is why people are eating more calories even as they are doing less physical labor.

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

#35
post #17

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

> who won’t regulate the drug market And the food industry, the real root cause of all of this

Saying food is the cause of obesity is boiling down the visible aggregate effect of a million different things into one big cause. I eat pretty much nothing but garbage food -- pizza, wings, burgers, subs: just salt and grease. And I went from 220 to 120 and stayed there doing it. It's a meme at this point that when we go to restaurants with friends it's the skinny people ordering apps and burgers and the overweight people get salads. The difference is that all the skinny people get full and leave half their meal on the plate. For most of my life I was dumbfounded that this could happen and they must be forcing themselves to stop or something but nope, I hit the wall same as the rest of them now. No issues with cholesterol or blood pressure either.

So we 1000% should deal with the amount of crap that's in our food but I don't think it'll be the cure-all that people expect.

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

#36
Mounjaro is not an obesity drug. It's a type 2 diabetes drug. Do not call it an obesity drug.

The headline is editorialized. The linked article's headline: The ‘next Ozempic’ became a social media sensation. Then everything changed

The coupon didn't go away. The coupon's terms changed. I'm using the coupon now. Because I have type 2 diabetes. The coupon changed because people were using it to get the drug for off-label use. The drug wasn't taken away from people trying to lose weight by jacking up the cost. The drug shouldn't have been dispensed in this way to begin with.

Lilly is seeking to get approval of tirzepatide under a different label as a weight loss drug, similar to how Ozempic and Wegovy exist, as well as Victoza and Saxenda.

If you want a GLP-1 RA (this drug class) for weight loss, go get Wegovy or Saxenda, which are a version of these drugs approved for weight loss for those with a BMI over 30, or wait for the tirzepatide version. Leave the diabetes drugs alone.

And to be clear: This drug isn't helping diabetics by helping them lose weight. It helps diabetics regulate blood glucose. It slows the release of glucose from the liver as well as promotes the release of insulin from the pancreas. Weight loss due to slowed stomach emptying is a side effect.

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

#37
https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/semaglutidonomics

These new weight loss medications are the solution to obesity. Imo this is one of the biggest medical advances of the century and at least in urban areas of wealthy countries, I don’t think we’ll see obese people anymore in 10 years.

The pharma companies realized they’ve got something truly revolutionary so they took the old tried and true drug dealer strategy. Get ‘em hooked for free/cheap and then bump the price to capture the value. Can’t say it’s surprising, they’re just following the incentives. And as the link goes through, these drugs have the potential to be worth many billions of dollars over their lifespan.

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

#38
post #17

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

> who won’t regulate the drug market And the food industry, the real root cause of all of this

[deleted]

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

#40

I understand that $25 may have been an introductory loss leader but $1k seems insane and short sighted given the size of the market this drug potentially has.

"The conflict, which has been exacerbated by shortages of Mounjaro and two of its GLP-1 predecessors, Ozempic and Trulicit"

Seems like a supply chain problem

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