Wegovy semaglutide injection pens. Credit: K KStock/Adobe Stock

The new-generation weight-loss drugs work very well at preventing obesity, diabetes and death, but they are still much too expensive to be a good financial value for employer plans or other payers, researchers report in a new paper published by JAMA Health Forum.

Semaglutide, the GLP-1 agonist drug that powers Wegovy, could cost less than $100,000 per qualify-adjusted life year added once its price falls to $1,522 per year, from an average of about $8,412 per year today, the researchers estimate.

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Allison Bell

Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.

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