PJ Vogt

So there's a world of discourse and media, which I belong to, which bungled this story for at least a year.

In the world of the patient populations who you treat, like what was actually happening far away from the discourse?

Can you just tell me stories like from early on, like what type of patient was taking these medicines at your clinic and how is it affecting them?

Yeah.

I mean... What do they say?

Dr. Bedard says that part of this revolution has come because, maybe surprisingly, maybe not, one side effect of the huge demand surge for these drugs in 2023 and 2024 is that the price has been driven down.

When the manufacturers of drugs like Ozempic couldn't meet demand, compounding pharmacies entered the marketplace, selling compounded versions at a much lower price.

That ended up pushing prices further down, even on the name-brand GLP-1s.

So now, Semiglutide, which not so long ago cost $1,200 a month without insurance, can be found online for as low as $150 a month.

A healthcare market that, for once, seems to have kind of sort of worked.

Eventually.

We're going to take one more break, and when we come back, Dr. Bedard gives us her take on people who are taking these drugs for decidedly off-label use.

Do you, just in your social life, do you have, like, non-patient people, like, friends, family members still asking about the drugs?

Constantly.

What do you tell people right now?

Do you talk to people who are talking about using it, I guess, off-label to manage addictions?

Really?

Did it work?

If I really thought it was a cure for Twitter use, I would stand outside other people's houses with, like, a blowgun.

I had one last question for Dr. Bedard.