Semaglutide Forum: Game Changer for Weight Loss

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Mark A. Moyad, MD, MPH & Martin M. Miner, MD, discuss the potential benefits of semaglutide, a newly approved weight-loss drug.

Semaglutide is a medication that has been approved by the FDA to treat type 2 diabetes and has also been approved for obesity management under the brand name Wegovy [1][3]. It helps with weight loss by suppressing appetite, which can lead to a reduced intake of food [2].

Semaglutide works by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which is naturally produced by the body. GLP-1 plays a role in regulating blood sugar levels and appetite. Semaglutide affects several processes in the body, including increasing the release of insulin, reducing the release of glucagon, and delaying gastric emptying [2].

The increase in insulin helps lower high blood sugar, while the reduction in glucagon release also contributes to better blood sugar control. Delaying gastric emptying means that food stays in the stomach for a longer time, which can help with satiety and decrease appetite [2].

The typical dose of semaglutide for weight loss is 2.4 milligrams, administered weekly as subcutaneous (under the skin) self-injections [3]. While semaglutide has shown promising results in weight loss, it is important to note that its effectiveness is dependent on continued use, and some experts are skeptical about its long-term safety and limitations [1].

In semaglutide studies, participants experienced significant weight loss. In one clinical trial, participants who received semaglutide lost 5% or more, 10% or more, 15% or more, and 20% or more of their baseline body weight at week 68, compared to those who received a placebo [1]. On average, participants taking semaglutide lost 15% of their body weight [2]. Some individuals lost as much as 40 pounds while participating in a clinical trial of the drug [2].

In another study, after 68 weeks of treatment, the semaglutide group lost an average of 16% of their baseline body weight, equal to 37 pounds. This was compared to a 5.7% average weight loss, or 14 pounds, for those assigned to intensive behavioral therapy combined with a placebo [3]. These results demonstrate the significant weight loss potential of semaglutide in clinical trials.

There are a few ways to save on semaglutide for weight loss, which is available as the brand-name medication Wegovy. One option is to use a copay savings card from the manufacturer. If you have commercial insurance, you may be eligible to pay as little as $25 for Wegovy using this savings card [1]. More information about the copay savings card and other coverage options can be found on the Wegovy website [2].

It's important to note that the cost of Wegovy before insurance is around $1,627 per month, and coverage for weight loss drugs like Wegovy can vary widely depending on the type of insurance you have and your location [3]. The $25 copay card provided by the manufacturer may help ease the cost, but only if your insurance plan covers the medication [3].

A more affordable way to get semaglutide when insurance does not pay is to have your doctor fax a prescription to a compounding pharmacy like EmpowerPharmacy.com. Their price runs approximately $350 per month.

 

My insurance doesn't cover Mounjaro and I get it for 25.

This is about semaglutide. Mounjaro isn’t the same, I’m not as familiar, it may still be helpful but I was drawn to semaglutide because it wasn’t just an appetite suppressant, it seems to help out on its own, still not a miracle but it seems like people that didn’t change much still lost weight.

 

Mounjaro is the same type of drug and may work better than Semaglutide. I recall 5% more weight loss than Semaglutide. There is a nationwide shortage of Semaglutide so you can't get it anyway.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist - Wikipedia

 

Mounjaro is the same type of drug and may work better than Semaglutide. I recall 5% more weight loss than Semaglutide. There is a nationwide shortage of Semaglutide so you can't get it anyway.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist - Wikipedia

So is it also hormonal? I was told semaglutide was appetite suppressant but also it may help out more than that reason, like people that didn’t modify their food still lost weight.

 

Big Pharma is cutting their own throats, they better get to work or quit crying about intellectual property thefts. Peptide companies are selling this stuff as fast as it comes in.

Yes they are, I deal with one company and it’s their Cyber week, put 4 in your cart and pay for 1, some say they are under dosed, and I’m not sure about that.

 

Insurance is usually ok with Ozempic and use the savings card. You can get up to 3mg Ozempic dose. Not many will be able to handle more than 3mg.
Save on Ozempic® | Ozempic® (semaglutide) injection 0.5 mg or 1 mg

Only problem you should have is getting it filled because of the shortage. The shortage is affecting others like Trulicity and Mounjaro from people switching.

The maximum dose for Ozempic is 2 mg and 2.4 mg for Wegovy.

 

I am going to add an update on my wife. I have to remind you that my wife is very active but has an appetite bigger than mine. She eats and is still hungry. She can easily eat 16oz of red meat and want more. So it is very hard to keep the weight off.

She is now on her 3rd wk of the Semaglutide at 250mcg. She ate a small amount for breakfast and completely forgot to eat until late evening. Then should could not even finish 1/2 of what she put on her plate. She says her appetite is just not there like it use to be. So she is eating a much less that normal and is not really hungry.

Weight loss? I could not get my wife to step on scales if I put a gun to her head. So we will just have to go by how she looks. Right now I see little difference. But it has only been three weeks.

 

Hey everyone. Any other places where I can get semaglutide for an affordable price? I have not been able to get a hold of the DrugCrafters recommended by Jed. I have called a few other compounding pharmacies and asked for semaglutide and they always say that all they have is the brandname Ozempic and it's 1600/mo without insurance :O Should i be asking for the medication using other terminology? I see thatthey have it at PeptideSciences for 110$ for a 3mg vial, which i am considering, but I am not great with the conversions and would have trouble figuring out the dosage. I don't want to pay for the phone consult to get an RX for it if I'm not gong to be able to find a place that sells it at an affordable price.

I bought from them. Add 2 ml of water and that’s to doses of 1.5mg in that little bottle.

 

Is anyone seeing an increased resting heart rate on Segmaglutide? I am on 2.4 mg of Wegovy and have been for 1 year. Good results but increased resting heart rate of ~7-10 beats per minute.

 

Breakingviews - Big Pharma will muscle in on obesity gold rush

Obesity drugs are a modern day gold rush for drugmakers. Eli Lilly , valued at $347 billion, is close behind $207 billion Novo Nordisk in releasing a weight loss drug, in a market expected to be worth $50 billion by 2030. But the duo’s success is enticing rivals and smaller players. That may...

www.reuters.com

I wonder what is in the pipeline to deal with long term effects of "obesity" drugs? Human farming....gotta shake your head.

 

Breakingviews - Big Pharma will muscle in on obesity gold rush

Obesity drugs are a modern day gold rush for drugmakers. Eli Lilly , valued at $347 billion, is close behind $207 billion Novo Nordisk in releasing a weight loss drug, in a market expected to be worth $50 billion by 2030. But the duo’s success is enticing rivals and smaller players. That may...

www.reuters.com

I wonder what is in the pipeline to deal with long term effects of obesity drugs? Human farming....gotta shake your head.

Human farming? What are you talking about?

 

Big Pharma has found another way to rape Americans. I guess these aren't really obesity drugs but type II diabetes drugs being used off label.

Ozempic prefilled 2mg pen - GoodRX CVS price $928
Chinese equivalent - $6, 2ml vial, you an aford to buy your own pen and BW

Americans need to wake up and quit takeing this from big pharma order from ourside the USA. There was a woman in our community that lost her job and lost her health insurance. He son needed his asthma inhaler which cost at CVS - $500. I found the exact same product in India for $12 that I turned her on to. Big Pharma has a death grip on us.

 

Big Pharma has found another way to rape Americans. I guess these aren't really obesity drugs but type II diabetes drugs being used off label.

Ozempic prefilled 2mg pen - GoodRX CVS price $928
Chinese equivalent - $6, 2ml vial, you an aford to buy your own pen and BW

Americans need to wake up and quit takeing this from big pharma order from ourside the USA. There was a woman in our community that lost her job and lost her health insurance. He son needed his asthma inhaler which cost at CVS - $500. I found the exact same product in India for $12 that I turned her on to. Big Pharma has a death grip on us.

Raping Americans? A bit dramatic, aren't we? Especially since Big Pharma didn't make us obese, we did.

I get a monthly supply of Mounjaro for $40, same with Ozempic if I wanted it. While buying drugs overseas shouldn't be illegal, the flipside to your argument is that Big Pharma needs to be incentivized to make mountains of money. Otherwise, they may not spend R & D dollars developing these drugs.

 

guess these aren't really obesity drugs but type II diabetes drugs being used off label

Thank you for the important clarification. I modified my comment to put obesity in " " marks. I should have just referred to them as GLP-1 agonists.

 

Human farming? What are you talking about?

Urban Dictionary: human farming

The practice, by nation states, of the parasitical exploitaion of its population. Evolved from the slavery, subsequent feudal and Monarchical/Federal models of civilisation, human farming is practiced globally (enabled through Uniform Commercial Code in the USA and Admiralty Law in the EU)...

www.urbandictionary.com

Humans----> industrialized / processed food supply ----> obesity and other health problems. ----> polypharmacy ----> ROI ----> taxes ----> blah blah.

Throw something in there too about the Matrix/Technological Singularity.

Most people don't buy only on the perimeter of grocery store. But then are buying on the back wall of the drug store.

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Thank you for the important clarification. I modified my comment to put obesity in " " marks. I should have just referred to them as GLP-1 agonists.

Amazing how the FDA will allows off label use on these drugs without clinical trials, but they threw a huge fit over people using hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin for off label purposes. I guess it is much different when you interfer with big pharma's profit margin.

 

Amazing how the FDA will allows off label use on these drugs without clinical trials, but they threw a huge fit over people using hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin for off label purposes. I guess it is much different when you interfer with big pharma's profit margin.

Eli Lilly gets FDA's speedy review for obesity drug

Eli Lilly and Co said on Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had agreed to a quick review of its diabetes drug Mounjaro to treat obesity, months after a study showed it helped people lose more than 20% of their weight.

www.reuters.com

From your lips to FDA's ears. No human clinical trials complete on thyroid cancer in humans but let's expedite FDA approval for obesity use. I wonder if law of unintended consequences will kick in here (or maybe it is intended consequences) - shoulder shrug emoji with hands up.

 

Amazing how the FDA will allows off label use on these drugs without clinical trials, but they threw a huge fit over people using hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin for off label purposes. I guess it is much different when you interfer with big pharma's profit margin.

Speaking of which...this had me laughing:

U.S. criticizes China's zero Covid strategy, says Beijing needs to boost vaccination among elderly

The White House, in a statement, said the Chinese people have the right to protest peacefully.

www.cnbc.com

I thought we needed to vaccinate all the kids LMAO. Amazing about face. FACEPALM.

 

Raping Americans? A bit dramatic, aren't we? Especially since Big Pharma didn't make us obese, we did.

I get a monthly supply of Mounjaro for $40, same with Ozempic if I wanted it. While buying drugs overseas shouldn't be illegal, the flipside to your argument is that Big Pharma needs to be incentivized to make mountains of money. Otherwise, they may not spend R & D dollars developing these drugs.

So when I can buy Symbicort in India for $12 but here in the USA I have to pay $500, that is not rape? In fact, I see it as being anal rape with no lube.

No Big Pharma didn't make us obese (some do have medical issues), but simple medicine needs like an asthma inhaler (symbicort) for $500 is a bit challenge for all of those people with health problems that are out of work, or just can't afford health insurance, much use it due to the extremely high deductibles. Having an asthmatic attack could lead to death or a very expensive trip to the hospital. Budesonide-formoterol are commonly used and should be made available to asthmatics at a much less expense.

Why is it almost every country in the world has affordable medicine and American are getting gouged? Are we the worlds cash cow? Why do big companies like Eli Lilly do R&D in countries other than the USA. Eli Lilly is located in 125 countries. Their products in these countries are nowhere near as much as they are right here in the USA where they have their headquarters. Meds from Pfizer in Argentina and Brazil don't cost what they do here. I guess Americans have more money to spend so we get stuck with the R&D bill?

Now insulin comes to mind. Type I diabetes is genetic for the most part, we didn't cause that. Insulin was patented in 1923. Four companies own the patent, Eli Lilly, Sanofi,Novo 1Nordisk, and Pfizer. Yet the patent is not allowed to ever expire because these 4 companies conspire to slightly change the formula keeping insulin from ever going generic. Meanwhile the price of insulin per ml has increased by 197% over the time frame of 11 years. Why not, over 37 million Americans have diabetes and need insulin. This is just another gold mine big pharma has control of Americans One might think the money made in 1923 researching insulin has been paid for several times over. Yes, big pharma still wants to hold diabetics hostage. It always seems like the same old companies that do this. Humlin N using GoodRx is $107 for 10ml, 100iu/ml. The same insulin in Hong Kong goes for $10. Which goes back to @Readalots "Human Farming" comment.

Companies like Novartis brag about helping poor countries all over the world like Kenya who don't have money for medicine but guess who pays for this help? Not Novartis, AMERICANS are the cash cow. We pay inflated prices so the rest of the world can get affordable medicine. Meanwhile we have our share of poor and people who live pay check to pay check that also have no access to medicine because we are too busy making it affordable for the rest of the world.

 

Eli Lilly gets FDA's speedy review for obesity drug

Eli Lilly and Co said on Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had agreed to a quick review of its diabetes drug Mounjaro to treat obesity, months after a study showed it helped people lose more than 20% of their weight.

www.reuters.com

From your lips to FDA's ears. No human clinical trials complete on thyroid cancer in humans but let's expedite FDA approval for obesity use. I wonder if law of unintended consequences will kick in here (or maybe it is intended consequences) - shoulder shrug emoji with hands up.

Yet we pay extravagant prices here in the USA for R&D yet the Clinical trial process that use to put American medicine at the top is nonexistent. But when you have heads of the FDA resigning and taking cushy jobs on boards of these same companies they are approving medication of getting 7 figure salaries its little wonder. @readalot when you knowingly volunteer for a clinical trial, kind of hard to sue when you were volunteering as a lab rat. No doubt EliLilly will be part of the cure on down the road and American will once again shell out the big bucks. To think we are concerned about the quality of foreign and black-market medications. Recently, FDA head Scott Gottleib went to Pfizer after their vaccine was approved for use. Stephen Hahn went to Moderna, Mark McClellan when to Johnson and Johnson. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

 

$900 a month???!! I pay $180 for a 3 month supply through a compounding pharmacy! Need more info let me know… Been on Semaglutide for 7 weeks now have lost 5 pounds so far. I lift weights and cardio 3x week not a competitive bodybuilder but would like to lean out some I’ve always been a chunky kind of guy
Starting weight 220
Goal weight 185

I’m not sure what you’re taking. But there definitely no way that this product is being sold from a compounding pharmacy. Have launched and sold this class of drugs since 2005. These are proteins that need to be held at a stable refrigerated temperature. Also there are 5-7 functions of the glp-1 enzyme.

The satiating effect comes from the posterior o f the hypothalamus and the depletion of glp-1 in that region. It also slows gastric emptying with creates the feeling of fullness.

In 17 years I’ve seen patients lose 5-50 lbs it depends on the person. This is not a quick fix and won’t work for everyone