Futter’s supplier, Henry Meds, now not presents compounded tirzepatide injections, however allowed sufferers to position bulk orders earlier than phasing it out. He went forward and ordered a number of months’ value of vials however doesn’t know what he’s going to do when he runs out. “I’m extraordinarily nervous about what’s going to occur,” he says. “I am eking each drop I can out of each vial to make it stretch slightly bit longer.” (As of publication, Henry Meds is providing new and present sufferers the flexibility to bulk order 40 weeks of semaglutide injections. Henry Meds didn’t reply to a request for remark.)
Jim Bertel, a 41-year-old who lives in Colorado and credit tirzepatide for altering his life, was additionally capable of stockpile his compounded GLP-1 remedy earlier than his supplier stopped promoting it. He’s uncertain of what he’s going to do when he runs out later this month, and he’s spending time scouring Reddit and Fb boards to seek out which telehealth firms are nonetheless providing variations of the medication. “Proper now my plan is to take it month by month,” he says. “Hopping from supplier to supplier.”
Jessie, 40, who requested to be recognized by her first identify solely, turned to a medical spa to get compounded drugs when she couldn’t get constant entry via her insurance coverage or major care supplier. Her supplier initially wrote her a prescription for Wegovy, however she says it was “contact and go” getting it stuffed. She was capable of complement with a compounded model from the med spa when it wasn’t accessible. However on the finish of final 12 months, Jessie acquired a letter from her insurance coverage firm saying it will now not cowl Wegovy. Then her major care supplier stopped writing prescriptions for weight reduction drugs, saying they have been an excessive amount of of a problem. She went again to the med spa and was capable of get compounded semaglutide as not too long ago as April, however the facility mentioned it couldn’t assure provide shifting ahead. She’s now contemplating shopping for the drug from Mexico since she travels usually to San Diego for work. “It is the identical meds, you do not want a prescription, and it is cheaper,” she says. In Mexico, brand-name Wegovy may be bought for round $200 a month.
Spotty insurance coverage protection has helped drive demand for compounded GLP-1 merchandise. Regardless of Wegovy and Zepbound being accepted for sufferers with a physique mass index of 30 or higher, and 27 or higher for these with at the very least one weight-related ailment, some insurance policy require a better BMI or extra standards for protection—in the event that they cowl drugs for weight problems in any respect. “The entire underlying theme right here is that this stigma and bias of not recognizing weight problems as a illness like we do most cancers and diabetes and every thing else,” says Florencia Halperin, an endocrinologist and chief medical officer at Type Well being, an internet medical weight reduction clinic, “For most cancers, you’d by no means have an employer who says, ‘We’re not masking this.’”
Amanda Bonello, founder and CEO of the GLP-1 Collective, a nonprofit group aiming to assist sufferers entry these drugs, shouldn’t be shocked on the lengths sufferers are going to. Bonello, who herself has taken compounded GLP-1 merchandise, says for a lot of sufferers she’s spoken to, the influence of those drugs isn’t just concerning the weight itself.
