As the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists for treating obesity continues to grow, so does the curiosity around the impact and longevity of this trendy class of drugs.  

Prime Therapeutics (Prime) has been a leading voice in the conversation around GLP-1s, with its industry-leading research on adherence/persistence and cost-effectiveness, in addition to its quarterly GLP-1 Pipeline Update.   

At this year’s Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Annual Meeting, four research posters presented by Prime’s clinical and health outcomes teams took a deeper dive into the latest real-world GLP-1 research.  

I (Alex Cook, part of Prime’s newsroom team) took time with Ben Urick, PharmD, Ph.D., senior principal health outcomes researcher at Prime, to learn more about the GLP-1 insights shared at the event.   

Alex Cook: Prime’s researchers will present four research posters at AMCP that take a closer look at our ongoing real-world studies of GLP-1 use for weight loss. In a nutshell, what will our teams present this year?  
Ben Urick: Our prior work assessed the relationship between GLP-1 initiation among a group of commercially insured members without diabetes and with obesity one year before and one year after starting a GLP-1 product. This work builds on that prior study by expanding the evaluation period to two years after initiation. We find that medical spending does not decrease in the second year compared to the prior year, and drug spending remains elevated. Additionally, we see a small increase in adverse events, including acute pancreatitis. We also observe an increase in instances of bariatric surgery and joint replacement among GLP-1 initiators. Results are not meaningfully different when looking at a persistent population that stayed on therapy the full two years. 

You’ve played a central role in Prime’s GLP-1 research since our Year-1 data was announced in July of 2023. How have conversations with your peers around GLP-1 drugs — and our data — evolved since then? 
This is an ongoing, active conversation. One item we’re often clarifying is that our findings do not suggest that GLP-1 medications aren’t effective at treating obesity, or that members who lose substantial weight don’t have other meaningful improvements in health. Our work provides broader context at the population level to explore medical cost offsets, reductions in clinical events, etc. We’ve found that in the broader population, these positive effects are difficult to observe. 

You’ve presented Prime’s real-world GLP-1 studies at industry events like AMCP, with clients and members of the media, for a couple years now. What has surprised you most about the response to the research so far? 
In general, our findings have been received positively. We’ve made efforts to balance supportive statements on the effectiveness of these products in treating obesity with the reality that medical cost offsets, clinical outcome event reductions and such are going to be challenging to observe through claims in the short term. This seems to resonate across audiences. One thing that has been surprising is the reaction to our findings of low persistence. Persistence is generally low among new users of any therapy, and in that sense, our findings aren’t unexpected.  

What other topics or trends on the AMCP agenda have caught your eye this year? 
The topics on artificial intelligence and cell and gene therapies should be interesting. These are trending topics outside of GLP-1s, which intersect with the health outcomes work we do, and I’m looking forward to attending these presentations. 

For more insights from AMCP, visit the Prime newsroom. To learn more about the latest GLP-1 insights from Prime, visit Prime’s GLP-1 Strategy page.