Many people like to mock celebrities for using the various popular weight loss drugs. “Saturday Night Live” recently did a sketch making fun of Ozempic, and the topic has been ripe for late-night comedians.
The joke is that these drugs are all about vanity, and that may be true for Hollywood stars. People who can afford private chefs, personal trainers, and all sorts of other support may not need this sort of pharmaceutical intervention.
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For many regular people, however, these drugs are lifesavers. And while they have been portrayed as miracle drugs, the reality is that they are just part of living a healthier lifestyle.
Many people need these drugs to keep conditions like diabetes and heart-related ailments in check.
The category, known as GLP-1s, has been very difficult to get even for people with a medical need. Supplies have been limited, and in some cases they have gone to customers who can afford to pay full price.
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It’s a difficult situation because the demand for these drugs is very high, and insurance has not been super cooperative when it comes to approving them.
CVS CEO David Joyner talked about weight loss, drugs, and other life-changing medications during his company’s first-quarter earnings call.
A person is seen getting ready to inject an Ozempic dose.
Image source: Shutterstock
CVS makes life-changing medicines easier to get
Joyner was open during the call about the problems CVS Health (CVS) faces. He literally called the health care system “broken,” and shared a number of ways his company plans to fix it.
“Another critical component of earning the trust of our customers is enhancing access and making the cost of life-changing medications more affordable,” he shared.
The CEO provided concrete examples.
“We led the market in driving the adoption of Humira biosimilars, delivering over a billion dollars of savings for our clients. A year after we revitalized the biosimilar market with our launch of Cordavis, our low-cost Humira biosimilar. It has the largest market share in the U.S.,” he explained.
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Humira is an incredibly useful drug used to treat many inflammatory conditions in adults, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), plaque psoriasis, and a skin condition called hidradenitis suppurativa. Humira is also used in adults and children to treat Crohn’s disease, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and uveitis, according to Drugs.com.
Joyner shared that CVS now wants to improve access to GLP-1s.
CVS bring customers weight-loss drugs
Joyner made it clear that the decision to work to bring better access to GLP-1s was not about customers wanting to look better.
“Today, we’re leading the way forward on GLP-1s. These innovative drugs, which can have a meaningful impact on people’s health, were launched at prices that pressured our clients’ budgets,” he shared.
CVS has taken steps to correct that.
“To address this, we were pleased to announce that we are partnering with Novo Nordisk to significantly increase access to Wegovy for our members at a more affordable price,” he shared.
The CEO also noted that CVS’ wide reach into local communities allows it to do more than just fill a prescription.
“We can increase the power of GLP-1s by combining them with additional lifestyle clinical support as part of our CVS weight-management program offered to our clients through Caremark. This combination allows members to achieve better outcomes and even greater weight loss than the pre-program results,” he added.
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Joyner tried to make it clear that CVS wants to make accessing needed medicine easier for customers.
“Additionally, we are the first retail pharmacy in the NovoCare pharmacy network. This will enable us to provide convenient, safe and affordable access to Wegovy for eligible patients at our 9,000 community health locations across the country. Taken together, this demonstrates the value of our integrated model and what CVS Health does day in and day out,” he shared.