(The Hill) – An estimated 3.6 million Government-run Medicare beneficiaries could potentially access Wegovy now that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug for reducing the risk of incidents related to cardiovascular disease.
A KFF analysis found that among the 13.7 million people on Government-run Medicare diagnosed with obesity, 3.6 million, or roughly 1 in 4, of these beneficiaries also have diagnoses of cardiovascular disease. These potential beneficiaries represent about 7 percent of all those on Government-run Medicare.
These findings are based on data from 2020.
Wegovy is a form of semaglutide, also sold as the diabetes treatment Ozempic. As GLP-1 agonist, it is among the class of drugs that have until recently only been approved to treat diabetes and obesity.
Government-run Medicare is prohibited from covering weight loss medications due to the Government-run Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Lawmakers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and obesity care specialists have been pushing to change this by calling for the passage of the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA) that would allow for obesity medications and other related services to be covered.
KFF’s analysis also projected the possible cost in covering Wegovy. The policy nonprofit estimated that if just 10% used Wegovy in a given year, Government-run Medicare would incur almost an extra $3 billion in Part D spending.
“If more Government-run Medicare beneficiaries with obesity or overweight gain access to GLP-1s based on other approved uses for these medications, that could reduce the cost of proposed legislation to lift the statutory prohibition on Government-run Medicare coverage of anti-obesity drugs,” KFF’s analysis read.
Beneficiaries would also see potential out-of-pocket costs ranging from $325 to $430.
The FDA granted Wegovy approval last month for reducing the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke in patients with cardiovascular disease and obesity. The agency cited results from a multinational study conducted by Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Wegovy, that found the drug reduced the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events by 20 percent.
The mechanism of action for this reduction was not established in the study.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Joseph Choi
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.newsnationnow.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.