Increase in online searches for obesity drugs correlates with rise in prescriptions
Key takeaways:
- Obesity drug prescriptions rose from 760,000 in July 2017 to 1.51 million in February 2024.
- Phentermine was the most prescribed obesity drug in February 2024 while Wegovy was searched for the most on Google.
The number of prescriptions for obesity medications rose an average of 5.3% annually from 2017 to 2024 and corresponded with an increase in online searches for obesity drugs, according to data published in JAMA Network Open.
“The strong correlation for GLP-1 agonists between online searches and prescriptions was notable, highlighting a potential impact of public awareness on prescription trends,” Philipp Berning, MD, MHBA, and Omar Dzaye, MD, MPH, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at Johns Hopkins Hospital, told Healio. “The shift in prescribing patterns among advanced practice providers, whose share clearly increased to approximately 40% was also unexpected, suggesting their growing role in obesity management.”
Researchers conducted a cross-sectional study examining obesity medication prescription trends and online search queries from July 2017 to February 2024. Prescriptions for FDA-approved medications for obesity and GLP-1-based drugs for diabetes management that also confer weight loss were obtained from the IQVIA National Prescription Audit. Online search data were collected from Google Health Trends.
Prescription trends
Monthly obesity drug prescriptions increased during the study period from 760,000 in July 2017 to 1.51 million in February 2024. The mean annual growth in obesity drug prescriptions was 5.3%.
In February 2024, phentermine was the most commonly prescribed obesity medication with 740,000 prescriptions that month, followed by semaglutide 2.4 mg (Wegovy, Novo Nordisk) at 420,000 prescriptions and tirzepatide (Zepbound, Eli Lilly) at 250,000 prescriptions. Prescriptions for some obesity drugs declined during the study. Fewer than 20,000 monthly prescriptions were written for liraglutide (Saxenda, Novo Nordisk) from October 2023 until the end of the study and for naltrexone/bupropion (Contrave, Orexigen Therapeutics) from July 2022 through the end of follow-up. All other obesity medications had fewer than 20,000 monthly prescriptions during the entire study period.
In July 2017, 57.9% of obesity drugs were prescribed by primary care physicians and internists and 25.3% were prescribed by advanced practice practitioners. The proportion of obesity medications prescribed by advanced practice practitioners in February 2024 increased to 40.6%, whereas the percentage prescribed by PCPs and internists fell to 48.1%.
Online search trends
In February 2024, Wegovy was the most searched FDA-approved obesity drug with 636.3 searches per 10 million. Zepbound had 468.9 searches per 10 million, and phentermine was searched for every 301.8 queries per 10 million. Searches for any obesity medication increased from 543.9 per 10 million in July 2017 to 1,679.2 per 10 million in February 2024.
Researchers also assessed prescription trends for medications that confer weight loss but are FDA-approved for conditions other than obesity. Those drugs include semaglutide 1 mg (Ozempic, Novo Nordisk), oral semaglutide (Rybelsus, Novo Nordisk), tirzepatide as approved for diabetes (Mounjaro, Eli Lilly) and liraglutide as approved for diabetes (Victoza, Novo Nordisk). Prescriptions for those drugs increased by a mean 38.5% annually from 2017 to 2024. In February 2024, there were 2 million Ozempic prescriptions and 1.2 million prescriptions for Mounjaro. Online searchers for all four medications increased during the study. Of the four medications, advance practice practitioners in February 2024 prescribed Ozempic 53.7% of the time, Mounjaro 36.8%, Rybelsus 6.1% and Victoza 3.3%.
“The GLP-1 receptor agonists initially approved for diabetes management ... are often prescribed off-label for obesity treatment,” the researchers wrote. “We considered these applications in our analysis, recognizing that the anti-obesity effects of these medications may be beneficial for both diabetes management and obesity treatment.”
Researchers found the number of prescriptions and online search activity were correlated for phentermine (r = 0.78; 95% CI, 0.68-0.86; P < .001), Saxenda (r = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.52-0.78; P < .001), Wegovy (r = 0.97; 95% CI, 0.96-0.98; P < .001), Ozempic (r = 0.99; 95% CI, 0.98-0.99; P < .001), Zepbound (r = 0.9; 95% CI, 0.84-0.94; P < .001) and Mounjaro (r = 0.97; 95% CI, 0.95-0.98; P < .001).
Berning and Dzaye said more studies are needed to assess cost-effectiveness of newer obesity medication and long-term adherence to the drugs.
“[We also need to] evaluate patient motivations to better understand the role of social media and digital health literacy in driving prescription trends,” Berning and Dzaye said.
For more information:
Omar Dzaye, MD, MPH, PhD, can be reached at odzaye@jhmi.edu.
Collapse
Read more about