Trends in GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Dispensing Among US Patients Without Type 2 Diabetes Using Real World Data

OBJECTIVES: Obesity is a long-term disease linked to several biological (genetics, hormonal), socioeconomic, and structural factors and associated with the development of comorbidities including hypertension (HT), type 2 diabetes (T2D), dyslipidemia, stroke, coronary heart disease, gout, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and various cancers. Recently, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists originally developed for T2D management, were approved for obesity/weight loss applications among those without T2Des. These novel applications of GLP-1 agonists will significantly impact the structural landscape of obesity interventions including surgical options. We aimed to describe overall monthly trends in dispensing of GLP-1 agonists among persons without T2D.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of health insurance claims from 01 January 2019 to 31 October 2023 among eligible enrollees aged 12 years and above without T2D. Filled prescriptions of all GLP-1 agonists were identified using national drug codes (NDCs). Comorbidity of interests were identified using the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10-CM) diagnosis codes. Monthly dispensing rates per 100,000 enrollees were examined and averaged over each study year.

RESULTS: For every 100,000 enrollees aged >12 years without T2D, 493 used GLP-1 agonists in 2019, 697 in 2020, 838 in 2021, 774 in 2022, and 973 in 2023 respectively. Similar to the user trend, the monthly trend in drug dispensing for GLP-1 agonists continuously increased over the study period. Specifically, there were 644 dispensing of GLP-1 agonists in 2019, 954 in 2020, in 1329 in 2021, 1605 in 2022, and 2396 up to October in 2023, each per 100,000 enrollees.

CONCLUSIONS: We observed increasing uptake trends of GLP-1 agonists both in the number of users and the number of prescriptions filled in a commercially insured population aged 12 years and older without T2D. Further research may investigate this pattern among different age groups and clinical comorbidity profiles.