Utah's embrace of weight loss drugs: slow but steady
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Utah has one of the nation's lowest rates of prescriptions for anti-obesity GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic — but their usage is rising.
The intrigue: After a flush of celebrity endorsements early on, the drugs were popularly seen as a luxury cosmetic intervention — along the same line as plastic surgery, which is famously commonplace in Utah.
Yes, but: With expanding insurance coverage, the drugs are becoming more accessible and more widely viewed as a medical treatment for obesity..
Zoom out: The states with the highest rates of GLP-1 prescriptions are also the states with the highest obesity rates, with West Virginia at the top of both lists.
- That's according to insurance claims data provided to Axios by the health analytics company PurpleLab.
- The states with the lowest rates of use generally have some of the nation's lowest rates of obesity: Hawaii, D.C. and Rhode Island.
Zoom in: About 2.3% of Utah adults obtained at least one GLP-1 prescription last year — a lower share than all but eight other states.
- More than 299,000 doses were dispensed here — a 6.1% increase from 2023.
The big picture: PurpleLab's data offers a snapshot of the sustained increase in demand across the U.S. for the drugs hailed as game-changers in the fight against obesity, Axios' Tina Reed reports.
- More than 20 states saw double-digit growth in prescriptions.
Between the lines: The most prescriptions went to adults ages 55 to 65 (29%), followed by seniors 65 and older (26%).
- That likely contributes to the low rate of use in Utah, the youngest state.
Follow the money: The vast majority of prescriptions went to commercially insured patients while only 9% were written for Medicaid patients.
- 17% went to patients on Medicare.