Rebekah Carl poses with her Wegovy prescription in New Columbia, Pennsylvania, USA, November 13, 2023.
Hannah Beier | Reuters
Do you think a friend or colleague should receive this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up.
Good day! Use of a popular class of weight loss and diabetes medications is more common than ever.
About one in eight U.S. adults have used a GLP-1 drug at some point in their life, according to a survey released last week by health research organization KFF. About half of these Americans, or about 6% of U.S. adults, currently use one of these treatments.
This includes Novo Nordisk's weight loss injection Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic, along with Eli LillyZepbound, the weight loss drug Zepbound, and its diabetes counterpart Mounjaro.
The survey shows that despite temporary shortages, a large proportion of Americans are taking the drugs because of continued demand. The treatments have become increasingly popular in the last year, despite high costs and limited insurance coverage.
Let’s dive into some of the data.
Most adults, more than 60%, who took GLP-1 said they took it partly to treat chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease. This includes 39% who took GLP-1 solely to treat a chronic condition and 23% who took it both to treat a chronic condition and to lose weight.
Meanwhile, 38% of adults who had taken GLP-1 reported using it specifically to lose weight.
Notably, GLP-1 use differed by race and ethnicity.
- About 18% of black adults have used one of these drugs
- About 14% of Hispanic adults have used them
- About 10% of white adults have taken one of these medications
Black and Hispanic adults in the U.S. have higher rates of obesity than white adults, according to KFF analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
There are also differences according to age groups, according to the survey.
Nearly 20% of adults ages 50 to 64 reported having taken GLP-1, which is higher than the proportions reported by other age groups.
However, younger adults were more likely than people age 65 and older to report taking GLP-1 specifically for weight loss. KFF said this may be because the federal Medicare program does not cover prescription weight loss medications.
Medicare can only cover weight loss treatments if they are approved in the U.S. for additional health benefits, such as treating diabetes and reducing the risk of heart disease.
But the majority of adults, regardless of whether they have taken a GLP-1, said Medicare should cover the cost of the drugs when prescribed for weight loss and for people who are overweight, according to the KFF survey.
Still, more than half of health-insured adults who took GLP-1 reported that their health insurance covered some of the cost of these medications. Meanwhile, 24% said their insurance covered the entire cost of the drug, and 19% said they paid the entire cost themselves.
This survey's data points could change in the future if GLP-1 is approved for new purposes such as sleep apnea and fatty liver disease, which would increase pressure on health insurance companies to cover them. Stay tuned for our coverage of the use of these medications.
Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.
Latest technology in healthcare
Google DeepMind announces new AI model that can predict the structure of molecules
Pavlo Gonchar | Light rocket | Getty Images
Google On Wednesday announced a new artificial intelligence model called AlphaFold 3 that can supposedly illustrate the complex interactions and structures of “all molecules of life.” The company hopes the model will transform drug discovery and biological research.
According to a Google blog post, AlphaFold 3 predicts the shapes and behaviors of large biomolecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins, as well as small molecules commonly used in drugs. When prompted with a list of molecules, the model can show how they all fit together by generating their common 3D structure.
Modeling molecules like proteins has historically been a tedious task for researchers. According to Google, experimental protein structure prediction can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years to complete. As a result, Google said AlphaFold 3 could help accelerate drug discovery and genomic research and contribute to new scientific discoveries such as “biologically renewable materials and more resilient crops.”
The model was developed by Google DeepMind, which researches and builds AI systems, and Isomorphic Labs, which explores applications of AI in drug development. Because AlphaFold 3 encompasses a broad group of biomolecules, it goes beyond the capabilities of AlphaFold 2, which can only predict the structures of proteins.
DeepMind announced AlphaFold 2 in 2020. The model has since been used by “millions” of researchers to develop cancer treatments, malaria vaccines and enzymes, Google said.
According to the blog post, AlphaFold 3 is able to predict the interactions between proteins and other molecules at least 50% better than other existing methods, and the model doubled the prediction accuracy for other interaction categories.
“We believe this new technology has the potential to transform biological research,” said Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, in a LinkedIn post.
Google said scientists will be able to access the “majority” of AlphaFold 3’s features for free through its new AlphaFold server. The company launched the server as part of its “ongoing commitment to sharing the benefits of AlphaFold,” the blog post said.
Researchers from Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs published their results in the journal Nature.
Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.caroot@nbcuni.com.
