Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With the FDA approving Wegovy in pill form, one area pharmacist says he's excited about one particular facet, and also believes availability will not become an issue.
Independent pharmacist Stephen Giroux does have one question about availability.
"The access is always a question of insurance coverage, but the announcement says that the price point on the oral Wegovy will be much lower than than the injectable," said Giroux in an interview with WBEN.
With the price point at $150 per-month, as opposed to $1,300 for an injectable, Giroux believes insurance companies will be welcoming the ingestible pill.
"I believe the availability will be broad once the drug gets launched, although they have had starts and stops that have created supply chain shortages, but I'm pretty sure they've overcome those with this particular launch, and they'll be fully prepared to meet, to match, the demand for the product," Giroux believes.
Another question some have is, will the Wegovy pill be safe? Dr. Ashley Bernotas of Kaleida Health Weight Management Center says she's confident it will.
"They've been tested now for years. GLP1s have been on the market since the early 2000s," said Bernotas with WBEN. "In 2005, particularly, they came out with one version of a GLP1 known as Victoza, and then has been improved upon over the last 20 years. Some of our patients have been on these medications for 20 plus years, and as long as they don't have any medical contraindications to the medication, they're doing fairly well on them."
Bernotas says success depends on more than just taking the Wegovy pill.
"It's not the medication alone, and at our center in particular, we have a health coach as well as a dietitian who works with our patients. And so these medications have proven to be effective alongside a 500 kilocalorie deficit per day and 150 minutes of exercise per week in addition to the medication," Bernotas explained.
She says GLP1s have definitely helped kick start people's weight loss and those who have been stalled throughout the years, but warns it has to be done with lifestyle modifications.
Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy, says the once-daily pill will be available by prescription in early January.