Weight Loss Drug Could Be Available to Millions of Americans

Wegovy, a drug which has seen massive demand in recent years due its weight loss properties, will now be made available to Medicare patients to help reduce their risk of heart attacks and strokes.

In a statement given to Newsweek, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it would fund prescriptions of the medication through plans administered by private insurers because evidence shows it lowers the chance of a patient suffering a major cardiovascular event.

The move comes after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Wegovy for use in treating the conditions earlier this month, following an application by its manufacturer Novo Nordisk. Previously, the popular drug had been primarily used in treating obesity and diabetes.

"CMS has issued guidance to Medicare Part D plans stating that anti-obesity medications (AOMs) that receive FDA approval for an additional medically accepted indication can be considered a Part D drug for that specific use," a spokesperson for the federal agency said.

They added: "Part D coverage is still not available for AOMs when used for chronic weight management in patients who do not have the additional medically accepted indication, unless provided as a supplemental benefit by the Part D plan."

The CMS said that the approval meant Part D plans could include the drug within the current contract year—suggesting Wegovy could be available to some Medicare recipients as early as this year.

Tricia Neuman, a Medicare policy specialist at health care nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, however, told the Associated Press that insurers "may be reluctant to move quickly to cover Wegovy given its relatively high price, particularly because they won't be able to adjust premiums before next year."

The medication can fetch a high price, making it unaffordable to many, and some have expressed opposition to its availability on Medicare because of this cost, as it could consume a large proportion of its funding.

Wegovy is the brand-name injectable form of semaglutide—what is known as a GLP-1 receptor agonist, which mimics the hormone produced in the gastric system after eating, and, in higher doses, interacts with the brain to suppress appetite.

It is also sold by Novo Nordisk under the brands Ozempic and Rybelsus, which come in both injectable and pill form. A similar form of GLP-1 receptor agonist is sold under the Zepbound and Mounjaro brands by U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly.

While Wegovy is a formulation that has been specifically designed to encourage weight loss, semaglutide and other drugs of its kind were originally developed to regulate blood glucose levels in diabetics.

Some medical experts have suggested the drug could be used to lessen the risk of other health conditions that are typically connected to obesity and diabetes—including cardiovascular conditions.

The results of a large-scale Novo Nordisk trial, which compared semaglutide to a placebo among 17,604 adults over the age of 45, released last year, suggest the drug not only helps people lose an average of 15 percent of their weight, but also reduces the prevalence of major adverse cardiovascular events like heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular disease-related deaths by 20 percent.

Concerns have also been raised about some of the potential side effects of the drug, which can include slowed gastric movement and psychiatric events.

A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk previously told Newsweek that the issues were noted on the drug's label and that psychological complications had been reported in trials of other weight management drugs.