NEW YORK, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- More than a third stopped taking GLP-1s, the class of medicines that includes diabetes and weight-loss shots like Ozempic and Zepbound, because of out-of-pocket costs, according to a recent survey of 1,000 adults in the United States.

"Shots that cause rapid weight loss, like Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound and Novo Nordisk A/S's Ozempic and Wegovy, are meant to be taken indefinitely. Yet, due to list prices in the United States of more than 1,000 U.S. dollars a month and their extreme popularity, insurers are deciding many people don't need them or dropping coverage for the medicines altogether," reported Bloomberg News on Wednesday about the development.

Patients are left with hard choices. Some are rationing their doses. Others switch to copycat versions made by compounding pharmacies that still cost hundreds of dollars. Many quit the meds altogether, it noted.

This lack of access is muting the potential world-changing impact of these medications. Instead of benefiting from wonder drugs that promise to meaningfully reduce obesity rates, droves of people are essentially back living in a world of yo-yo weight loss -- with little lasting benefit and added health risks, according to the report.

And in a way, patients were quoted as saying, stopping treatment is worse than never being on the drugs at all. Because once the weight has been banished, its return causes even more physical and emotional suffering. Enditem

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