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Sesame Healthcare on Wednesday announced a new clinical weight loss program that will help eligible consumers access combination versions of Novo NordiskThe popular obesity drug Wegovy is available for $249 a month.
Sesame allows patients to book and pay for appointments with doctors and specialists directly through its website, eliminating middlemen such as insurance companies.
The company said it is adding semaglutide — the active ingredient in Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes injection Ozempic — to its platform to help users safely access obesity and diabetes treatments at a time when many branded drugs are in short supply. Sesame already offers branded weight-loss and diabetes medications through its platform, including through partnership with Costco.
But the company's new program could serve as a more cost-effective alternative for weight loss, Compound medications Drugs sold online are typically cheaper than their brand-name counterparts. Wegovy and Ozempic both cost about $1,000 a month before insurance, and most weight-loss programs from competing digital health companies don’t include the cost of these drugs.
“Due to this shortage in the drug supply, we, on behalf of American consumers, are working to make a generic version of semaglutide available to our users in… [a] “It’s an affordable price point,” Michael Botha, Sesame’s president and co-founder, told CNBC. “In fact, we think it’s probably the most affordable price point that a consumer can find on a comparative basis.”
Wegovy and Ozempic are part of a very popular class of weight-loss and diabetes drugs called GLP-1s, which mimic certain gut hormones to suppress a patient’s appetite and regulate blood sugar. The treatments have gained popularity in recent years, and some analysts expect the industry to generate Over $100 billion in annual revenue by 2030.
Supply shortages are one of the biggest hurdles facing Novo Nordisk and its main competitor, Eli Lilly, as rising demand could make it difficult for many patients to find treatments. When there are shortages of branded GLP-1 drugs, some manufacturers can make combination versions if they meet FDA requirements.
The lowest dose of Wegovy is not available in sufficient quantities, but all other doses of the drug and Ozempic are available, according to the FDA. Drug Shortage Database.
Compound medications are specially designed alternatives to brand-name medications designed to meet a specific patient's needs, such as an inability to swallow a pill or an allergy to a particular product's dye. These compound medications can be prescribed, manufactured, and distributed under two categories of Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
This law was created Two categories Compounding pharmacies are regulated as so-called 503B pharmacies, which can manufacture larger batches of medications without individual prescriptions. Meanwhile, 503A compounding pharmacies can make personalized medications for individual patients and are largely regulated by states rather than the FDA.
But both Wegovy and Ozempic are under patent protection in the United States and abroad, and Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly do not supply the active ingredients in their drugs to outside groups. The companies say this raises questions about what some manufacturers are selling and marketing to consumers.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have stepped in to address the illegal versions of their treatments, filing lawsuits against weight-loss clinics, medical spas and pharmacies that sell the compounded drugs across the United States over the past year. The Food and Drug Administration also announced last month that it Reports received Patients who take overdoses of semaglutide due to dosing errors such as patients giving themselves incorrect amounts of medication.
Sesame “initially shied away from compounded drugs because the company felt uncertain about their purity and quality,” Botha said. But as Sesame learned more about compounded drugs, he said, “The combination versions of GLP-1s, the more we see that they are effective, the more they seem to be quite safe. People tend to have a good experience when they take them.”
Sesame then sent teams to inspect several pharmacies that manufacture 503B drugs.
“We decided to work with a compounding pharmacy that definitely met our standards when it came to inspecting their processes, quality and production,” said Botha.
The compounding pharmacy, which has partnered with Sesame, will manufacture single-use prefilled syringes instead of a single vial of medication that patients have to measure themselves. This will help patients “avoid the risks of overfilling the syringe, over-injecting, or overdosing on this medication,” Botha said.
To participate in the new Sesame program, patients will fill out an intake form and select a healthcare provider. They will have a video consultation with the provider, complete some lab tests and receive a prescription if the provider decides it is appropriate.
Patients will have access to ongoing consultations via video chat, as well as a library of nutrition, fitness and mindfulness content. The content won’t be available immediately when the new program launches on Wednesday, but Sesame said it will be available in about two weeks.
The company added that anyone who signs up in the meantime will automatically get access to it when it becomes available.
“There are millions and millions of Americans who suffer from obesity itself and all of its consequences,” Botha said. “And we think being able to connect patients who are undersupplied is something worth doing.”
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