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Why You’re Probably Eligible for Ozempic or Wegovy
Want to lose a little weight, better manage your diabetes, or reduce your risk of heart problems?
Odds are you eligible for a prescription for semaglutide, the popular diabetes and weight loss drug better known by the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy.
More than half of U.S. adults – 136.8 million, to be exact – now qualify to take the drug, whether it’s to manage diabetes, treat overweight or obesity, or reduce the risk of heart disease, according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Cardiology.
The average age of an eligible person is 50 years old, and men and women are equally likely to qualify, said the researchers, from Harvard and Northwestern universities.
The new figures are based on data collected from 2015 to 2020 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The researchers considered someone eligible for semaglutide if they reported at least one of the following:
- A diabetes diagnosis
- A hemoglobin A1c test result with an HbA1c concentration of 7% or greater
- Taking a medication that treats diabetes
- A body mass index (BMI) score of 30 or higher
- A BMI score of 27 or higher, plus high blood pressure or high cholesterol or a history of heart attack or stroke
- Being age 45 or older with a BMI score of 27 or higher and a history of heart attack or stroke.
About 94% of the eligible people, or 129 million, met the weight management criteria. Of the more than 136 million adults considered eligible, 26% had diabetes and about 7% met the heart and blood vessel risk criteria.
Just 7.6 million people would qualify because they have diabetes alone – meaning they are not also overweight, obese, or at high risk of heart disease.
The analysis also revealed how many people may meet multiple criteria to take semaglutide. Nearly 32 million adults qualify for two or all three of the drug’s uses, which include managing weight, diabetes, or heart disease.
The study authors noted that semaglutide sales in the U.S. totaled $13.8 billion in 2023. Along with tallying how many people may qualify to take the drug, the researchers looked at what type of insurance coverage the eligible people had – an important consideration because semaglutide is expensive and may be a lifelong treatment. About 45% of eligible people had private insurance, 10% had Medicaid, 19% had Medicare, 13% had other state- or government-issued insurance, and 13% were uninsured.
The number of those eligible to take semaglutide and other drugs from the same class – known as GLP-1s, or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists – is projected to rise rapidly and include more young people. Estimates published last week in The Lancet forecast that by 2050, 1 in 5 children and 2 in 3 adults in the U.S. will have obesity. The overall number of U.S. adults with obesity will likely reach 213 million by 2050, and another 43 million children and adolescents are also expected to have the chronic disease.
Manufacturers of GLP-1s have struggled to keep pace with demand for the drugs, which are taken as a weekly shot that you give yourself. New research continues to show wide-reaching health benefits from GLP-1s, with the latest study showing that people with obesity who took semaglutide had less osteoarthritis knee pain.
SOURCES:
JAMA Cardiology: “Semaglutide Eligibility Across All Current Indications for US Adults.”
The Lancet: “National-level and state-level prevalence of overweight and obesity among children, adolescents, and adults in the USA, 1990-2021, and forecasts up to 2050.”
The New England Journal of Medicine: “Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Persons with Obesity and Knee Osteoarthritis.”
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