People with obesity or who are overweight and hoping to lose weight with the assistance of medication have a new option. On Nov. 8, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug Zepbound, which, according to clinical trials, helped participants lose up to 52 pounds in 16 months.
The FDA approved Zepbound for people with obesity and those who are overweight and have at least one health condition linked to their weight, such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or high cholesterol, according to an FDA press release. Many American adults, about 70% by FDA estimates, have obesity or are overweight.
The drug will cost $1,060 a month. NBC News reported that Medicare and many insurance companies do not cover such medications, which will make it difficult for many people to afford Zepbound.
“The current cost is too expensive for the general population,” Dr. Nishant Shah, a preventative cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, told NBC News. “We have to be able to get to patients in an affordable way.”
Zepbound, manufactured by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, is part of the same class of drugs, GLP-1 agonists, as Ozempic and Wegovy, which have gained popularity for their ability to induce weight loss quickly. Zepbound’s main ingredient is tirzepatide, the same as Mounjaro, also made by Eli Lilly and FDA-approved to treat Type 2 diabetes. Both Zepbound and Mounjaro work by mimicking two different types of hormones that help reduce food cravings and break down sugar and fat, facilitating weight loss.
Zepbound could be available as soon as this year and is expected to be one of the most in-demand medications ever sold, analysts told TODAY. So, what can people hoping to take the medication expect?
One patient who took Mounjaro — which is the same drug as Zepbound — off-label for weight loss shared with TODAY what her experience on the medication has been like. (Eli Lilly previously told TODAY.com…
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