Prescription trends for anti-obesity drugs and patterns in prescriber information between 2017 and 2022 in the United States.

Background/Objective Clinical trials have shown the efficacy of new medications in the treatment of obesity that have led their approval. Medical management of obesity is recommended when weight-loss goals are not reached with lifestyle intervention. However, little is known about recent trends in the use of anti-obesity drugs in the advent of new drugs.

Methods We conducted a descriptive analysis of serial data derived from IQVIA National Prescription Audit, a comprehensive audit capturing virtually all United States(US) retail prescription dispensing information. We queried monthly newly prescribed anti-obesity drugs [orlistat(Xenical, Alli), phentermine-topiramate(Qsymia), naltrexone-bupropion(Contrave), liraglutide(Saxenda), and semaglutide(Wegovy)], dispensed from January 2017 to December 2022 stratified by prescriber specialty and drug.

Results Between January 2017 and December 2022, a total of 5.07 million weight-loss prescriptions were dispensed in the US. During this period, monthly prescriptions increased 1.8-fold across all specialties (60034 to 109388). The proportion of weight-loss prescriptions compared to all prescriptions increased from 0.03% in 2017 to 0.05% in 2022. Across specialties, total use in 2022 was dominated by primary care physicians/internists(44.9%), followed by physician assistants and nurse practitioners(39.4%), and endocrinologists(8.1%); while cardiologists represented only 0.6% of weight-loss prescriptions. Prescription patterns across all specialties of main weight-loss drugs have changed from naltrexone-bupropion(55.4%) and phentermine-topiramate(28.8%) in 2017 to a strong increase for semaglutide(46.8%), liraglutide(30.0%) in 2022 [naltrexone-bupropion(11.6%), phentermine-topiramate(10.9%), orlistat(0.6%)].

Conclusions While the use of anti-obesity drugs increased in the US over a 5-year period, prescription patterns substantially changed towards a broad application of semaglutide and liraglutide because of positive trial results.

Interessenkonflikt

Nothing to declare.

Publication History

Article published online:
02 May 2023