Alarmed by Ozempic and Wegovy’s popularity, insurers wage battle

Patients are bracing for “D-Day,” the date their insurance companies will stop covering the drugs. Doctors are getting letters from insurance investigators discouraging new prescriptions. And pharmacies are being told by insurers to check for a specific diagnosis when filling prescriptions.

It’s a charge on all fronts by insurance companies to contain the spiraling costs of a new class of weight loss-inducing drugs, the GLP-1s.

Some of these treatments — like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy — are approved for obesity, while others — like Novo’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro — are approved for diabetes, but they all employ similar mechanisms and have exploded in demand for their ability to curb appetite and cut significant amounts of weight.