EAGAN, Minn. – In the latest findings from its industry-leading study, Prime Therapeutics LLC (Prime) announced today that individuals without diabetes who newly started glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist drugs for obesity experienced an average of $4,206 higher cost of care in their second year compared to like members not taking a GLP-1 drug for obesity. The study also shows that across the obesity-related outcomes included in the study, no reduction in medical events was observed over the first two years of therapy.

These findings are part of Prime’s ongoing GLP-1 research, including its most recent study, which showed 85% of individuals taking GLP-1 drugs for weight loss no longer took the drug after two years.

“Prime remains committed to studying the impact of GLP-1s for the foreseeable future because clients and patients deserve to make informed decisions, and our real-world data can help them do that,” said Marci Chodroff, M.D., vice president, medical director at Prime. “The popularity of GLP-1 drugs as a treatment for obesity meets a sobering reality of poor adherence and high cost of care in the real world, and it may be quite some time before these measures and health metrics improve in any substantial way.”

Additional findings from the study include an increased rate of acute pancreatitis among individuals taking a GLP-1 drug for obesity in the first year of therapy. Per the study data, researchers found one additional acute pancreatitis event per 250 GLP-1-treated individuals included in the study. 

The findings indicate in the real world that individuals taking GLP-1 therapies without diabetes will see no medical cost offset in their treatment over the two years but rather expect a total cost of care of $11,200 per individual at two years at standard drug prices prior to discounts with only 1 in 7 still taking a GLP-1 drug.

“While individuals experience weight loss from taking a GLP-1 drug, in our real-world analysis, no further health benefit is observable after two years, and in fact, they end up with a substantially higher cost of care than those who are not taking the drug,” said David Lassen, PharmD, vice president, pharmacy clinical services at Prime.

For additional insights and study design details, read our Year-2 cost-of care abstract. And for more information, visit Prime’s GLP-1 Strategy page.