Eager Germans are prepared to pay for weight-loss drug By Reuters

By Ludwig Burger and Maggie Fick

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) – Annoyed after numerous failed food plan and train makes an attempt, 41 year-old Jessica Lenth from Hamburg has began placing cash apart for a drug that she sees as a potential door to a life with out weight problems.

Interviews with seven docs and two different potential customers of Wegovy from Germany, the place Novo Nordisk (NYSE:)’s weight-loss drug will grow to be accessible on the finish of July, present the workplace administrator is not alone.

“It’s kind of like a final hope I cling to. I’ve simply learnt the value. For now, I will be saving a bit of cash earlier than I attempt to get it,” Lenth informed Reuters by phone.

The docs say they’re listening to an identical message from lots of of overweight or chubby sufferers and count on excessive demand for Wegovy prescriptions though public medical health insurance plans masking about 90% of Germans won’t foot the invoice.

The interviews recommend many sufferers shall be ready to pay themselves for the weekly injection, at an preliminary value of about 170 euros ($190) a month however simply over 300 euros long run.

For the ten% of Germans with personal medical health insurance, protection will rely on contract phrases. Allianz (ETR:) says it should pay if a doctor diagnoses a medical want whereas Debeka stated its plans exclude weight-loss remedies.

Affected person advocates and physicians welcomed the arrival of Wegovy in Germany, the place 18.5% of adults are overweight, greater than the European Union common of 16%. The Robert Koch Institute for public well being says ailments linked to extra physique weight pose a substantial burden on well being and social safety techniques.

Wegovy’s launch in Germany, its third European market and the area’s largest, comes as Novo is ramping up manufacturing to fulfill hovering demand in america, the place the drug sells for as a lot as $1,350 a month.

The Danish drugmaker informed Reuters it could intently monitor prescriptions in Germany to make sure that individuals with weight problems can begin and proceed therapy.

“However, if demand is increased than anticipated, we can’t rule out the potential for provide delays and shortages within the coming months,” it stated.

Novo’s shares have rallied almost 120% since Wegovy debuted in June 2021, making it Europe’s second-most-valuable listed firm after LVMH.

In Germany, Wegovy shall be administered with the identical injection pen utilized in Norway and Denmark, not the one utilized in america to keep away from hitting provides there.

A swift uptake might however additional pressure Novo’s skill to fulfill demand.

Wegovy’s introduction in Germany is prone to stir the controversy over what constitutes a medical want in a nation that docs stated typically sees weight problems as a “life-style alternative” slightly than a continual illness.

Dr. Sylvia Weiner, who runs an weight problems clinic at Sana Klinikum Offenbach close to Frankfurt, has fielded questions on Wegovy from a number of dozen sufferers prior to now few months and anticipates many extra.

“We’re actually ready for Wegovy,” she stated. “Sufferers are so determined in Germany that they’ll pay out of their pocket for the treatment.”

POTENTIAL IMPACT

Used alongside food plan and train adjustments, Wegovy has been proven to assist overweight individuals lose about 15% of their body weight.

However scientific trial information exhibits individuals regain weight after they cease taking it. Reuters reported final week that almost all U.S. sufferers stopped utilizing weight-loss medicine inside a 12 months.

Dr. Karl Rheinwalt, an weight problems specialist at St Franziskus-Hospital Cologne, reckons the fee will restrict uptake in Germany.

However Munich-based Dr. Thomas Horbach – who like Weiner and Rheinwalt performs gastric bypass and different bariatric surgical procedures – says a few of his sufferers who’re chubby however not diabetic already pay for Ozempic, a diabetes drug additionally made by Novo, themselves.

Utilizing the identical lively ingredient at a decrease dose, Ozempic prices much less per milligram of lively substance than Wegovy.

“My expertise is that folks will be capable of pay for it out of (their very own) pocket,” stated Horbach. He stated the ban on reimbursement by public well being schemes below a Eighties regulation that categorises weight-loss therapies as life-style medicine, discriminates towards individuals with low incomes.

Novo stated pharmaceuticals in Germany have been usually excluded from rebate or coupon promotions.

Some specialists say the approach to life drug classification reinforces a extensively held view that these with weight problems and associated situations equivalent to diabetes or hypertension have themselves guilty.

“Sufferers endure enormously from the stigma as a result of they really feel remoted, as a result of it is a seen illness that has been unfairly related to attributes equivalent to laziness,” stated Dr. Juergen Ordemann, one other surgeon and head of weight problems at Berlin’s Vivantes hospital chain.

With out public medical health insurance for weight problems medicine, and really restricted funds for obesity-specific psychotherapy, therapy in Germany typically means surgical procedure for essentially the most extreme instances, with a BMI of round 50.

DIET AND EXERCISE

All of the docs interviewed by Reuters stated they intend to prescribe Wegovy alongside structured food plan and train programmes.

Many fearful that provides could be additional strained by non-obese individuals looking for “self-importance” prescriptions – a priority mirrored in a Novo assertion final week saying physicians ought to “prescribe responsibly”.

Medical doctors say they’ll primarily take into account Wegovy for sufferers who’re on the early phases of weight problems, with a BMI of round 30 or barely increased, and never advisable for surgical procedure.

Severely affected sufferers would nonetheless require surgical procedure however they may use the drug to organize for his or her procedures and assist them keep a decrease weight afterwards.

Michael Wirtz, a civil engineering venture supervisor from Winsen an der Luhe in Decrease Saxony, had gastric bypass surgical procedure in 2011 that helped him lose 70 kg.

He has since regained 25 kg, nonetheless, and is contemplating Wegovy alongside life-style adjustments.

“With out it, I’d most likely have to consider altering my job to ease the stress degree, however that will in fact imply a decrease earnings,” stated Wirtz, including that he would possibly cancel some subscriptions to assist afford the fee.

Irina Ernstberger, a 66 year-old retiree, stated she considers Wegovy a fallback choice after she misplaced weight to properly under the weight problems threshold with the assistance of Ozempic.

Talking to Reuters at her home in Munich, Ernstberger stated she is heading in the right direction, having maintained her weight for 3 months even after getting off Ozempic, which she paid for herself.

The funding was value it.

“Certain, it prices quite a bit, not simply the drugs itself, but additionally a very new wardrobe. However shopping for new garments was enjoyable,” she stated.

($1 = 0.8984 euros)