Health care marketplace Sesame announced Wednesday a new clinical weight loss program that will help eligible consumers access compounding Novo NordiskWegovy’s blockbuster obesity drug for $249 a month.
Sesame allows patients to book and pay for appointments with doctors and specialists directly through its website, thus cutting out middlemen such as insurers.
The company said it is adding compound semaglutide — the active ingredient in Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic diabetes injection — to its platform to help users safely access obesity and diabetes treatments at a time when many of the brand-name drugs are in lack. Sesame already offers branded weight loss and diabetes drugs through its platform, including a partnership with Costco.
But the company’s new program could serve as a more affordable weight loss alternative, such as complex drugs they are usually cheaper than their brand-name counterparts. Wegovy and Ozempic cost about $1,000 a month before insurance, and most weight loss programs from competing digital health companies don’t include the cost of these drugs.
“Based on this drug supply shortage, on behalf of American consumers, we are making a compounded version of semaglutide available to our users at… [a] very affordable price point,” Michael Botta, chairman and co-founder of Sesame, told CNBC in an interview. “In fact, we think it’s probably the most affordable apples-to-apples consumer can find.”
Wegovy and Ozempic are part of a hugely popular class of weight loss and diabetes drugs called GLP-1s, which mimic certain gut hormones to reduce a patient’s appetite and regulate their blood sugar. The treatments have exploded in popularity in recent years, and some analysts predict the industry could create more than 100 billion dollars in annual revenue by 2030.
Supply shortages are one of the biggest hurdles for Novo Nordisk and its main competitor, Eli Lilly, as increased demand could make it difficult for many patients to find the treatments. When brand-name GLP-1 drugs are in short supply, some manufacturers can make compounded versions if they meet US Food and Drug Administration requirements.
The lowest dose of Wegovy is in short supply, but all other doses of the drug and Ozempic are available, according to the FDA drug shortage database.
Compounded drugs are customized alternatives to brand-name drugs designed to meet a specific patient’s needs, such as not being able to swallow a pill or being allergic to a certain product dye. These compounded medicines can be prescribed, prepared and dispensed in two sections Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
This law was created two classes of compounding pharmacies. The FDA regulates so-called 503B pharmacies, which can make larger batches of drugs without individual prescriptions. Meanwhile, 503A compounding pharmacies can create customized drugs for individual patients and are largely regulated by states rather than the FDA.
But both Wegovy and Ozempic are under patent protection in the US and abroad, and Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly do not provide their drugs’ active ingredients to outside groups. The companies say this raises questions about what some manufacturers are selling and marketing to consumers.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have both stepped in to deal with illegal versions of their treatments, suing weight loss clinics, medical spas and pharmacies across the US over the past year. The FDA last month also said it had received reports patients who overdosed on compound semaglutide due to dosing errors, such as patients who self-administer incorrect amounts of a treatment.
Botta said sesame initially “stayed far away” from compounded drugs because the company felt uncertain about their purity and quality. But he said about the more Sesame was learning compounded versions of GLP-1, so “more and more we’re seeing that they’re effective, they seem pretty safe. People tend to have a good experience taking them.”
Sesame then sent its teams to inspect several 503B compounding pharmacies.
“What we decided to do was to work with a compounding pharmacy that definitely met our standards in terms of inspecting their processes, their quality, their production,” Botta said.
The compounding pharmacy working with Sesame will make pre-filled single-use syringes instead of a single vial of medicine that patients must measure themselves. Botta said it could help patients “avoid the danger that comes from overfilling a syringe, overinjecting, overdosing — overdosing on this drug.”
To join Sesame’s new program, patients will need to fill out an intake form and select a healthcare provider. They’ll have a consultation with the provider via video, complete some lab work, and get a prescription if the provider thinks it’s appropriate.
Patients will be able to access ongoing consultations via video chat, as well as a library of nutrition, fitness and mindfulness content. The content won’t be immediately available when the new schedule starts Wednesday, but Sesame said it will be live in about two weeks.
Anyone who signs up in the interim will automatically get access to it when it’s available, the company added.
“There are millions upon millions of Americans who struggle with both obesity itself and all the consequences of obesity,” Botta said. “Being able to connect patients who are otherwise struggling with a lack of supply is something we think is worth doing.”
