81–90 of 97 posts
If you’re someone who is interested in these drugs, just know that you can get them from China for 1/10th the cost of what telehealth providers want. I’ve since supplied a few of my friends who have been interested in various peptides and it has been great overall. Some thought it would be a scam or bunk but they’re losing the weight with no side effects. It’s been great.
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From the article: You can order GLP-1 peptides from China for cheap. Once you have the peptide, all you have to do is put it in the right amount of bacteriostatic water. In theory this is no harder than any other mix-powder-with-water task. But this time if you do anything wrong, or are insufficiently clean, you can give yourself a horrible infection, or inactivate the drug, or accidentally take 100x too much of the…
Wait, people are buying stuff of unknown quality off the internet, mixing it with water in their kitchens, _and injecting it?_ That's wild. Even the article author seems to have a tongue in their cheek when issuing this "warning" that is definitely not a hint. Is it safer than it sounds?
You can do group buys with your friends to get a single batch made, then send in a few random samples to a lab for HLPC and sterility testing. This adds a few bucks per month to the total cost depending on the size of your buys. The ancillaries are all US medical grade from various sources and not material to the discussion.
There are no other sources for the raw compounds so it’s all coming from the same place and handful of Chinese finishers if it’s not not direct from Novo or LLY.
If you give yourself an infection with a subq shot you almost have to be trying. The rest is basic math.
There are certainly additional risks involved - but they are not the obvious ones you think of in the first 10 seconds.
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> but not that uncommon Taking in nearly double over the average household income is, by definition, uncommon.
JFC HN, I hedge and demure about as much as I reasonably can without distractingly and pointlessly (anyone can Google) turning the post into a dissertation on median household income percentiles and still someone complains. This is poor reading, and poor posting. The first year of that, about 20% of households were around our level of income or higher. We could have covered $1,500 in daycare without much trouble at a…
That you perceive it as a complaint is hilariously ironic. I'm just telling you that your notions of "common" are wrong. You are attempting to use your economic situation to justify the outcomes for others. That, my friend, is poor posting.
> about 20% of households
This is super easy. 1 out of 5 is "not common." You can be as parsimonious as you like it doesn't change the ground reality that there are fewer people like you than there are people like you.
> How much more than one-in-five before a category of person is not uncommon?
Weird hill to die on. There's nothing wrong with or your economic situation except your expectation that other people share it. Which they generally don't.
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> How can people pay $1000/month for the rest of their life No one actually pays that price. The $1000 misrepresented in the article as the "usual insurance price" is actually the list price, from which insurers negotiate discounts (that is, the full price -- not just the out of pocket price charged to the insured -- for insured patients is significantly less than that $1000 price), while most people who get the drug…
> No one actually pays that price. The $1000 misrepresented in the article… With respect, that is absolutely incorrect. People absolutely pay over $1000 and do so monthly. For example, Kaiser of Northern California makes it very difficult for their doctors to prescribe these, and nearly impossible to get a prescription for Monjaro (which is particularly effective). Therefore, Kaiser patients/insured for whom these dr…
The only folks not covered by the latter mostly either have no insurance or Medicare.
That said, many folks take a few months to figure out these programs exist, and some consumers simply never do the research.
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It seems like the entire US medical system runs on prices that no one actually pays. I don't really understand what all that extra complexity achieves?
It hinders individuals from making purchasing decisions that affect price. Less clarity on the actual price means that it's harder to shop around.
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JFC HN, I hedge and demure about as much as I reasonably can without distractingly and pointlessly (anyone can Google) turning the post into a dissertation on median household income percentiles and still someone complains. This is poor reading, and poor posting. The first year of that, about 20% of households were around our level of income or higher. We could have covered $1,500 in daycare without much trouble at a…
> and still someone complains. That you perceive it as a complaint is hilariously ironic. I'm just telling you that your notions of "common" are wrong. You are attempting to use your economic situation to justify the outcomes for others. That, my friend, is poor posting. > about 20% of households This is super easy. 1 out of 5 is "not common." You can be as parsimonious as you like it doesn't change the ground realit…
That said, even that is not really all that useful. Anyone who is motivated can get these drugs for around $500-600/mo via programs that exist for the vast majority of the population. That roughly halves the cost comparisons here. Very few folks who want these drugs have zero options other than to pay full retail.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How can people pay $1000/month for the rest of their life No one actually pays that price. The $1000 misrepresented in the article as the "usual insurance price" is actually the list price, from which insurers negotiate discounts (that is, the full price -- not just the out of pocket price charged to the insured -- for insured patients is significantly less than that $1000 price), while most people who get the drug…
It seems like the entire US medical system runs on prices that no one actually pays. I don't really understand what all that extra complexity achieves?
I have literally no skin in the game. Speaking as one of the winners in this charade, this whole thing is so stupid. It makes you wonder why they don't set drug MSRPs even higher.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
JFC HN, I hedge and demure about as much as I reasonably can without distractingly and pointlessly (anyone can Google) turning the post into a dissertation on median household income percentiles and still someone complains. This is poor reading, and poor posting. The first year of that, about 20% of households were around our level of income or higher. We could have covered $1,500 in daycare without much trouble at a…
> and still someone complains. That you perceive it as a complaint is hilariously ironic. I'm just telling you that your notions of "common" are wrong. You are attempting to use your economic situation to justify the outcomes for others. That, my friend, is poor posting. > about 20% of households This is super easy. 1 out of 5 is "not common." You can be as parsimonious as you like it doesn't change the ground realit…
Can someone please explain the economics of GLP-1s? How can people pay $1000/month for the rest of their life, just to keep weight off? Rent and mortgages are already insane as is, and then there’s insurance, kids, etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article: You can order GLP-1 peptides from China for cheap. Once you have the peptide, all you have to do is put it in the right amount of bacteriostatic water. In theory this is no harder than any other mix-powder-with-water task. But this time if you do anything wrong, or are insufficiently clean, you can give yourself a horrible infection, or inactivate the drug, or accidentally take 100x too much of the…
Wait, people are buying stuff of unknown quality off the internet, mixing it with water in their kitchens, _and injecting it?_ That's wild. Even the article author seems to have a tongue in their cheek when issuing this "warning" that is definitely not a hint. Is it safer than it sounds?
If you’re very paranoid, you can get it third party tested again and it will still be way cheaper than buying from a compounding pharmacy.