2024-04-22 17:22:00
Obesity rates have increased, some people can lose weight by changing their diet and burning more calories through exercise. But that doesn’t work for people who have developed resistance to leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite.
Innovative drugs counter this by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1, which is involved in regulating appetite. Inside cells, the drugs bind to the same receptors as GLP-1, lowering blood sugar and slowing digestion. They also last longer than their natural counterparts. The first GLP-1 receptor agonist was approved in 2005 to treat diabetes, and early versions needed to be injected once or twice a day. Ozempic improved this by requiring an injection only once a week. After clinical trials showed that the drug helped people with obesity achieve substantial and sustainable weight loss, the FDA approved Wegovy as a weight management drug in 2021. The serious problem with these drugs is their very high Cost, a monthly treatment ranges from $1,000 to $1,500, in fact, even when medications are covered by insurance or patients qualify for discounts from pharmaceutical companies, doctors have found that they often remain out of reach.
Researchers have been documenting disparities in the use of effective obesity treatments, such as bariatric surgery, for years. Newer medications like Ozempic simply focus more on the problem. We get excited every time a new, effective treatment comes out, but we should be equally concerned that this new, effective treatment can be used among the haves and have-nots.
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