GLP-1 RA Use for Obesity Soars Among Nondiabetic US Adults
Nationally representative survey data reveals that glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) use for obesity treatment more than tripled among US adults without diabetes between 2018 and 2022, with annual expenditures reaching $5.8 billion in 2022.
METHODOLOGY:
Although approximately 93 million US adults are potentially eligible for obesity treatment with GLP-1 RAs, estimates of current use and spending are limited to individuals with diabetes or are based on unrepresentative samples.
Researchers analyzed data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (2018 to 2022) to estimate annual prescription fills and national expenditures on GLP-1 RAs among US adults without a prior diagnosis of diabetes (excluding those with gestational diabetes).
Surveyed households provided data on demographics, medical conditions, healthcare use, and spending, with follow-back surveys of pharmacies primarily used to establish drug pricing.
TAKEAWAY:
The unweighted sample included 89,854 adults (51.8% women; 30.7% with a body mass index ≥ 30).
Annual prevalence of GLP-1 RA use among US adults without diabetes increased from 0.1% in 2018-2021 to 0.4% in 2022, with an estimated 854,728 adults without diabetes taking these medications.
Annual GLP-1 RA spending increased from $1.6 billion in 2018-2021 to $5.8 billion in 2022.
Between 2018 and 2022, the mean number of prescriptions per user was 4.1, with a mean expenditure of $1540 and an average out-of-pocket cost of $34.68 per prescription.
IN PRACTICE:
'Despite [increased use], adoption remained limited as only 1 in 250 US adults without diabetes used a GLP-1 RA in 2022,' the authors wrote. 'Average prices for these medications consistently exceeded $1500 per prescription, although average out-of-pocket costs were well contained, potentially due to people without private insurance being disproportionately less likely to access these medications,' the authors concluded.
SOURCE:
The study was led by Cade Shadbolt, MA, and Jasmin Elkin, The University of Melbourne, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Fitzroy, Australia. It was published online in Annals of Internal Medicine .
LIMITATIONS:
Multiple prescriptions filled by the same individuals may have influenced mean cost estimates. COVID-19 restrictions also posed challenges for survey collection, though data quality assessments during the pandemic yielded encouraging results. Disclosure restrictions limited detailed reporting on spending for less commonly prescribed GLP-1 RAs.
DISCLOSURES:
One author received support from the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Other authors reported serving as consultants for or having grants, contracts, or other ties with various organizations and pharmaceutical companies.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
If You're Confused by the New COVID Vaccine Guidelines for Kids & Pregnant People, Read This
Confused about the new COVID-19 vaccine guidelines for children and pregnant people? Trust us, you're not alone. It all started on May 27, when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the U.S. would no longer recommend COVID-19 shots for healthy children over 6 months or healthy pregnant people — a move that shocked most healthcare providers. Not only did the announcement upend the typical vaccine recommendation process, it also targeted a vaccine with good safety and efficacy data. Then, just a few days later, the CDC walked back part of RFK's statement regarding children's vaccines. The agency announced COVID shots would stay on the schedule for healthy children 6 months to 17 years old, as long as the children and their caregivers consulted with a doctor or provider — a caveat even doctors found confusing. 'My neck still hurts from the whiplash,' Dr. Molly O'Shea, MD, FAAP, an official spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and a faculty at the Children's Hospital of Michigan General Pediatrics Continuity Clinic, said on a briefing hosted by the non-profit HealthyWomen this week. More from SheKnows Elon Musk's Daughter Vivian Reveals One of Their Last Tense Interactions - Nearly 5 Years Ago RFK is a known vaccine skeptic, but it's highly unusual for the Health Secretary to make such decisions unilaterally, as multiple experts pointed out during the briefing. So ultimately, what does this mean for children and pregnant people when it comes to getting vaccinated for COVID? Are these shots still necessary, and will insurance still foot the bill for them if without this government backing? Here's what we know so far, according to experts in the briefing. The COVID vaccine is still considered very effective for children and pregnant people, with lower risks than the infection itself. Early in the pandemic, pregnant people and children often suffered significant outcomes from COVID, explained Dr. Margot Savoy, MD, MPH, FAAFP, senior vice president of education, inclusiveness and physician well-being at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). 'For pregnant people, in particular, the risk of ending up in the ICU, the risk of ending up on a ventilator, and the risk of death were just remarkably high, much more than you would expect,' she explained during the briefing. Once the vaccine became available, 'those rates declined,' Dr. Savoy said. In fact, the serious outcomes that many worried would be side effects from the vaccine — things like miscarriage, preeclampsia, blood clots, or premature delivery — were actually more likely to happen as side effects from COVID itself, not the vaccine. 'If you find yourself vaccinated, the rates of all of those things actually go down to almost none,' Dr. Savoy explained. Plus, there's the fact that vaccinated pregnant people pass their immunity to their fetus. That means that the vaccine protects the pregnant person themselves; their fetus, against stillbirth and premature delivery; and the baby, once they're born, by conferring protection in their first six months, Dr. Savoy explained. That's a good thing, because 'babies are very high risk' when it comes to respiratory infections like COVID, added Dr. Alice Sato, MD, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Advocacy Task Force at the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. 'Because they have such small airways… just a little bit of inflammation can make a baby get into trouble with their breathing a lot faster,' Dr. Sato explained. '[Babies] had very high hospitalizations, even with the last wave [of COVID-19.]' Children of any age can also experience long COVID — Dr. Sato said the most recent estimate was that 6 million children in the US were suffering from it — leading to symptoms like fatigue and fussiness. COVID can also lead to missing crucial periods of time from school or preschool. Getting vaccinated can help shorten those periods and protect them from those kinds of complications. 'In my vaccinated patients who get COVID, they get mild COVID, if they get it at all — and they aren't as apt to get long COVID,' Dr. O'Shea said. The vaccines are also still considered safe, the doctors agreed. In short, 'the recommendations have changed, but the science hasn't changed,' said Kate Connors, senior director of public affairs at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. So what are those new recommendations? The CDC no longer recommends COVID vaccination during pregnancy, which 'seems to be following a unilateral decision from the HHS Secretary,' Connors noted, referencing RFK Jr. 'It was made without any of the input of the experts at the CDC, the members of ACIP [the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices], certainly without feedback from organizations like ACOG, and so we're very concerned about this.' She noted that ACOG continues to recommend COVID vaccination for pregnant people. For children, the new recommendations are less cut-and-dry. After initially saying the US no longer recommends COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children over 6 months (with exceptions for children with certain medical conditions), the CDC now says it recommends a 'collaborative decision-making [approach] with your pediatrician,' explained Dr. O'Shea. 'Healthy children with no underlying health conditions can, in collaboration with their pediatrician, make a decision about whether or not they want to have their child vaccinated this coming fall against COVID-19.' However, this unusual caveat leaves the door open for insurance companies to rescind coverage of the vaccine, possibly forcing parents to pay out of pocket to vaccinate their children (more on that below). For Dr. Savoy, the 'really deeply troubling' part of these decisions is the lack of evidence to support them. 'I actually don't know what data was used to make the decisions that we're talking about today,' she said. 'The data that I have been able to see most recently continues to mark pregnant people as being incredibly high risk. There would be no situation in the data that I saw that would make me think that it makes sense to remove that recommendation.' The same goes for children, she added. COVID-19 remains a threat, Dr. Savoy emphasized. 'We keep having new variants show up. We keep having people end up in the hospital. We keep running out of beds in the ER. There's things that are still happening, even though they don't show up on the news.' This is one thorny question to come out of the changing guidelines. 'We don't know what's going to happen with insurance coverage, and we're very, very worried about it,' Connors said. That's because there's a direct connection between government vaccine recommendations and insurance coverage of those vaccines, Dr. Savoy explained. Insurance companies typically use government recommendations as a sign that a vaccine is safe and essential; when those recommendations are removed or weakened, the companies may see it as a sign (or an opportunity) to stop covering that vaccine. Connors also pointed out that we're only a few months from flu and RSV season, when vaccines become all the more essential for public health. 'This is a really tough time for these conversations, for these unanswered questions,' she said. All four experts continue to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for everyone, including pregnant people and children. Dr. Sato cited the 'incredible, robust' data that shows that the COVID-19 is safe, effective, and presents fewer risks of complications than an infection itself. 'The science has not changed,' added Connors. 'The COVID vaccine is safe and it is effective… [It's] the best tool that we have to prevent severe outcomes associated with COVID infection.' Dr. Savoy agreed. 'I would still strongly recommend that if you're a pregnant person, that you get vaccinated, not just to protect yourself, but… to protect the fetus and to protect your newborn infant on the other side of that delivery,' she stressed. 'I'm still willing to stand on that hill… And if you were bringing your child in for their visit, I would still say that your child needs to have at least that primary series as a routine recommendation.' Before you go, shop these products to soothe your child's cold symptoms: Best of SheKnows Amanda Seyfried, Megan Fox, & More Celebrities Who Have OCD 18 Baking Soda-Free Natural Deodorants That Won't Irritate Your Sensitive Pits 24 Celebrities Living With Autoimmune Disorders
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Diabetes startup Omada Health finally went public after 14 years. Here's who made bank.
Omada Health just became the second digital health company to IPO this year. The chronic care company saw its shares jump Friday morning by over 38% above its initial price. Here's what Omada's major investors' stakes are worth after the public market debut. Omada Health just went public at a $1.1 billion valuation — 14 years after its founding. It's the second digital health IPO of the year, following physical therapy company Hinge Health, which went public on May 21. The two IPOs come after a multiyear drought for healthcare public market debuts. And so far, Omada's IPO hasn't disappointed. While the chronic care company priced its initial shares at $19, its stock opened at $23 a share and jumped as high as $28.40 Friday morning, nearly a 50% increase. Omada Health launched in 2011 to provide virtual care for prediabetes, making its name in the years following for diabetes management. In recent years, its business has surged in new areas beyond diabetes care. Omada's weight care business has boomed as more patients taking GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic for weight loss seek companion care. The San Francisco-based company says most of its new employer and health plan clients approach Omada initially, interested in its metabolic health track. Omada's initial valuation of $1.1 billion is roughly where it was privately valued. Omada's last private fundraise, a $192 million Series E round announced in February 2022, put Omada's valuation over $1 billion. It's perhaps the best outcome Omada's investors could've hoped for, given that many digital health startups now looking to IPO last raised at huge valuations during VC's ZIRP period. Those valuations could be difficult to realize in today's market. Hinge Health, for example, went public at a $2.6 billion valuation after being valued in its 2021 fundraise at $6.2 billion. We don't know what Omada Health's investors paid for their shares, so we can't calculate their profit. However, since Omada's shares opened on the stock market at $23, we used that price to determine the worth of its investors' stakes. None of Omada's major investors sold any shares in its IPO. Here's what the stakes of Omada Health's major investors and executives are worth after its IPO. Revelation Partners is a healthcare-focused investment firm that says it provides flexible capital to companies, especially to give liquidity to startups. The firm first invested in Omada in September 2019, according to its website. Revelation Partners told Business Insider in an email that the firm invested in Omada through a series of secondary transactions. Omada hasn't mentioned Revelation Partners in previous press releases about its fundraises. Revelation Partners owns about 5.2 million shares, or 9.3% of the company. At the $23 market debut price, the firm's stake is worth about $120 million. US Venture Partners, an investor: $108.5 million San Francisco-based US Venture Partners makes early-stage investments across healthcare, software, consumer, and security. The firm says it's invested $4.5 billion across 532 companies. USVP led Omada Health's $4.7 million Series A fundraise in 2013. The firm contributed additional financing in Omada's Series B through D rounds. General partner Dr. Jonathan Root has served on Omada's board of directors since the firm's 2013 investment. USVP owns about 4.72 million shares, or 8.5% of Omada Health. At the $23 market debut price, the firm's stake is worth about $108.5 million. Andreessen Horowitz, an investor: $106 million VC giant Andreessen Horowitz, or A16z, first invested in Omada Health in 2015, when the firm led Omada's $23 million Series B. The firm went on to invest in Omada's Series C and D fundraises, per PitchBook. At the time of A16z's 2015 investment, former general partner Balaji Srinivasan joined Omada's board of directors. It's unclear when he stepped down from the board; he moved into a part-time role at A16z that same year. A16z owns about 4.6 million shares, or 8.3% of the company. At the $23 market debut price, the firm's stake is worth about $106 million. Fidelity Management and Research Company, an investor: $102 million Fidelity Management and Research Company is the parent company of financial services giant Fidelity Investments. Fidelity has invested in a handful of healthcare startups over the years, leading rounds like now- public insurtech Oscar Health 's $400 million raise in 2016 and smart ring maker Oura 's $200 million Series D in December. FMR led Omada's $192 million Series E fundraise in February 2022. Fidelity owns about 4.4 million shares, or 8.0% of the company. At the $23 market debut price, the firm's stake is worth about $102 million. Cigna Ventures, an investor: $79 million Health insurance giant Cigna spun out a venture capital arm in 2018 to back healthcare companies. Omada Health was one of the firm's first bets. Cigna began working with the diabetes company in 2015. Two years later, the insurer announced an investment in Omada, leading a $50 million round in 2017 that Cigna Ventures later called Omada's Series C-1 financing. Cigna also expanded its partnership with Omada as part of its formal investment. Cigna Ventures owns about 3.4 million shares, or 6.2% of the company. At the $23 market debut price, the firm's stake is worth about $79 million. aMoon Fund, an investor: $62 million Israeli VC firm aMoon fund invests in healthcare and life sciences companies from early to late stages. Founded in 2016, it has backed a number of biotech companies that later went public, including Sophia Genetics, which went public in 2021, and Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, which went public in 2022. The firm first invested in Omada Health in its $192 million Series E round in 2022. "The entire space of all these clusters of diseases that includes diabetes, hypertension, and obesity is going through a major revolution right now," aMoon Fund managing partner Tomer Berkowitz told BI. "The solution in the end will not just be based on drugs, but it'll be a combination of drugs and behavioral change. I think Omada plays a significant role in that." aMoon owns about 2.7 million shares, or 4.9% of the company. At the $23 market debut price, the firm's stake is worth about $62 million. Norwest Venture Partners, an investor: $58 million San Francisco-based Norwest Venture Partners invests in early- to late-stage startups. It's backed more than 700 companies and manages over $15.5 billion in assets, per the firm. Its healthcare portfolio also includes hospital operations AI company Qventus, which raised $105 million in January led by private equity firm KKR, and behavioral health site Talkspace, which went public in a 2021 SPAC deal. The firm led Omada's $48 million Series C round in 2015 and put additional funding into Omada's Series C-1 and D rounds. Norwest owns about 2.5 million shares, or 4.5% of the company. At the $23 market debut price, the firm's stake is worth about $58 million. Sean Duffy, CEO: $46 million Sean Duffy cofounded Omada Health alongside Adrian James, Omada's former president, and Andrew DiMichele, former chief technology officer, in 2011. The startup sought to use technology to deliver care for chronic conditions, initially focusing on prediabetes, to patients in between visits with their primary care providers. Duffy and James spun Omada out of the design and consulting firm IDEO, where they'd begun researching the challenges in prediabetes and metabolic disease care. For Duffy, the IDEO gig had begun as an internship while he was getting dual MD-MBA degrees at Harvard. Instead of returning to complete his studies, he turned his focus to the idea that would become Omada. Before Omada, Duffy had created the interactive Microsoft Excel training tool Excel Everest, written about healthcare innovation for the medtech blog Medgadget, and worked in people analytics at Google. Duffy owns about 2 million shares, or 3.5% of Omada Health. That number includes about 860,000 shares of common stock and 1.15 million stock options exercisable by May 30, according to Omada's S-1 filing. At the $23 market debut price, his stake is worth about $46 million. Wei-Li Shao, president: $13 million Wei-Li Shao has served as Omada's president since 2021. He first joined the company in 2021 as its chief commercial officer. Before Omada, Li spent a combined 17 years at Eli Lilly managing a number of the pharma giant's businesses and brands, including its Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and neurosciences businesses. Shao owns about 579,095 stock options exercisable by May 30, representing 1.0% of the company. He does not own any common stock. At the $23 market debut price, his stake is worth about $13 million. Steve Cook, CFO: $7.9 million Steve Cook joined Omada Health as its chief financial officer in 2021. He'd previously led strategic finance efforts at primary care chain One Medical through its 2020 IPO. Before that, he spent six years in finance and strategy at Salesforce. Cook owns about 340,000 stock options exercisable by May 30, giving him less than 1% ownership. He does not own any shares of common stock. At the $23 market debut price, his stake is worth about $7.9 million. Trevor Fetter, board member: $5.3 million Trevor Fetter has served on Omada's board of directors since March 2021. He's a senior lecturer at Harvard University and the lead independent director of insurance business The Hartford. Fetter is best known as the former chairman and CEO of health system giant Tenet Healthcare, a position he held for 15 years. Fetter also holds advisory positions at multiple other private and public companies, sitting on the board of directors at healthtech startup Biofourmis and serving as a member of the advisory board of private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners. Fetter owns about 231,000 shares, or less than 1% of the company. That number includes about 111,000 shares of common stock and 120,000 stock options exercisable by May 30. At the $23 market debut price, his stake is worth about $5.3 million. Jeryl Hilleman, chair of the board of directors: $4.8 million Jeryl Hilleman has spent the majority of her career as a serial CFO, holding the lead finance role at five different companies across industries, including software, biotech, and medtech. All five companies were ultimately acquired. Today, Hilleman is the chair of Omada's board of directors, a position she's held since 2019. She also serves on the boards of cancer therapeutics maker Novocure, which completed its IPO in February, as well as public medtech company Si-Bone and public vaccine maker HilleVax. Hilleman owns about 210,000 stock options exercisable by May 30, which gives her less than 1% ownership of Omada. She does not own any common stock. At the $23 market debut price, her stake is worth about $4.8 million. Dr. Sachin Jain, board member: $604,000 Dr. Sachin Jain is the president and CEO of Medicare Advantage provider SCAN Health Plan. He joined Omada's board of directors in August. Jain is also a professor of medicine at Stanford and a practicing academic hospitalist at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Previously, he was a senior advisor to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the president and CEO of CareMore Health and Aspire Health, and the chief medical information and innovation officer at Merck. Jain owns about 26,000 stock options exercisable by May 30, representing less than 1% of the company. He does not own any common stock. At the $23 market debut price, his stake is worth about $604,000. Julie Klapstein, board member: $527,000 Omada Health added Julie Klapstein to its board of directors in August. Klapstein was the founding CEO of Availity, one of the largest health information networks in the country. She spent nearly 11 years at Availity after its 2001 founding. Since Availity, she's served as a board member at nearly two dozen public and private companies, including healthcare companies like value-based primary care chain Oak Street Health and investment firms like PE firm Riverside Partners. She's also been an advisor to Andreessen Horowitz, most recently serving as a partner advisor from 2023 through April, per her LinkedIn. Klapstein owns about 23,000 stock options exercisable by May 30, representing less than 1% of the company. She does not own any common stock. At the $23 market debut price, her stake is worth about $527,000. Adam Stavisky, board member: $527,000 Omada added Adam Stavisky to its board of directors in August, alongside Klapstein and Jain. He most recently spent six years as the senior vice president of US benefits at Walmart. Before that, he spent 13 years at Fidelity, leaving as its head of benefits consulting. In addition to his role at Omada, he's a member of the board of advisors at marketing agency StrawberryFrog. Stavisky owns about 23,000 stock options exercisable by May 30, representing less than 1% of Omada Health. He does not own any common stock. At the $23 market debut price, his stake is worth about $527,000. Dr. Anne Beal, board member: $380,000 Omada added Dr. Anne Beal to its board of directors in October. Beal is the founder of AbsoluteJOI Skincare, a science-based clean beauty company. She's also a board member at pharma giant GSK and life sciences company Prolacta Biosciences. She previously served as the chief patient officer at biopharma behemoth Sanofi. Beal owns about 17,000 stock options exercisable by May 30, representing less than 1% of Omada Health. She does not own any common stock.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Bryan Norcross discusses how AI will become critical forecasting tool this hurricane season
MIAMI – This year's hurricane season marks a significant turning point in weather forecasting with artificial intelligence models being integrated into the analytical toolkit of forecasters at the National Hurricane Center. While not yet part of the official consensus models, AI is poised to dramatically enhance the accuracy and efficiency of hurricane predictions, ushering in a new era of meteorological technology. "This is going to be a year where we start to really take in and evaluate some of the AI model guidance from various producers, and we're going to pull that into our systems here and evaluate it," NHC Director Michael Brennan told FOX Weather. Artificial Intelligence Among New Tech Shaping Forecasts During 2025 Hurricane Season The NHC will then compare AI model guidance to their traditional models to see how well it performs and how the agency can integrate it into its forecasting process. "They're not going be part of our official consensus or blended models this year, but we may make some additional ones on the side that we're going to test out and see how they do and perform," Brennan adds. "I think especially for track, there's a lot of promise on the AI side for some potential improvements in the near term." Brennan notes that intensity forecasting might take longer to fully mature with AI. "You have to think of them all as being in experimental mode, and I think it's important actually to distinguish between them," he said. Noaa's Goes-19 Weather Satellite Begins Operations In Orbit For years, meteorologists have relied on sophisticated forecast models that simulate atmospheric conditions through complex mathematical equations, according to FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross. These traditional models, like the American GFS and European ECMWF, require immense computational power, running for hours to produce a single forecast, Norcross said. However, a new breed of AI models, such as Google's Graphcast and the European Center's AIFS, are emerging as powerful complements. Unlike their traditional counterparts, AI models utilize pattern recognition, learning from vast datasets of past weather phenomena to predict future outcomes, according to Norcross. This approach allows them to operate with remarkable speed, generating forecasts in mere minutes. "This year is going to be the big year because now we have access and regular access, immediate access, to many different AI models," he explained. 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook According to Norcross, the regular model tries to simulate the atmosphere. The AI models don't do that and are more pattern recognition oriented. However, the speed and efficiency of AI models allow for an unprecedented number of "runs" or simulations, providing forecasters with a much broader distribution of possible outcomes, Norcross adds. This increased variability insight is crucial for understanding the potential range of a hurricane's behavior. "Because the AI models are so efficient, what you can do is you can run the AI model with exactly the same information, and then you can modify it a little bit and run it again, and you can really get a good distribution of possibilities because you don't have to use all this computer power," Norcross said. How To Watch Fox Weather Currently, NHC forecasters rely on a consensus approach, averaging the outputs of multiple traditional models to produce the most reliable forecast, Norcross adds. This consensus has consistently proven to be more accurate than any single model. "This year, the AI models are not going to be added to the consensus, but they will in the future," Norcross said. "They'll do this in the background and just see if it helps the consensus or not."Original article source: Bryan Norcross discusses how AI will become critical forecasting tool this hurricane season
