FatAnon: Where Wegovy One, Wegovy All

I’ve slowed some what, but I also eat a little more than I used to, but I’m down to 260. Starting weight was 361. Goal weight is 245-250

 

I’m down 41 pounds since starting at the beginning of March. Was 243 with sky high blood pressure, a couple of bad panic attacks got me started. Now 202 and BP sits below 120/80 consistently. Goal weight is 195. Im taking compounded semaglutide from the website Ivim which has been very easy to deal with. One 10 minute virtual consult to start and $299/month with auto approved refills.

 

How do they ship it?
Like the price, wife is concerned because hers has to be frozen

 

When I was doing a compound earlier they’d ship it overnight and in some kind of dry ice

 

google says not to freeze semaglutide

 

Yeah I’ve heard refrigerated but it can technically go at room temp for 20 days

 

My ozempic comes in a cardboard box with some plastic foam like insulation and a couple of ice packs.

 

Any of you receiving compounded drugs should be calling the compounding pharmacy for questions on stability. The stuff pharma sells through traditional pharmacies have different shelf lives than what a compounding pharmacy is sending. Depending on what techniques each pharmacy is using the stability could vary widely from one pharmacy to another.

 

Not like this is surprising, but

 

It's amazing how shitty our healthcare/medical treatment is

 

It comes in a box of dried ice. Not frozen but chilled.

 

Not sure if already discussed, but you’re mostly paying for the delivery devices and not the drug itself.

 

Looking at Compound Semaglutide through Ivim, but if I'm reading correctly you have to pay upfront for 12 months?? The reviews are really solid but that seems odd.

its $150/month plus a $75 subscription fee. Don't people adjust dosages though? So paying upfront seems odd to me

 

My compound tirzepatide coming tomorrow. For those on that, are you following any special diet or eating instructions, or just generally trying to make choices but not tracking?

 

Explain this to me like I don't understand

 

YMMV but I'm eating either 2 fried eggs and 2 sausage links or a cup of oatmeal with fresh blueberries for breakfast, eat mixed fruit and a nature valley peanut bar for my lunch and then anything for dinner but making better choices, more veggies and less bread and potatoes but haven't cut anything out completely. Also walking 2+ miles five days a week and the weight is falling off. Down 16lbs in about 3.5 weeks.

Edited to add...drink lots of water. I'm drinking at least 4 17oz bottles a day and mixing it up with an unsweetened iced tea. Need to stay hydrated while you're on this.

 

Novo Nordisk has patents on their injector pens for another decade, which is one way they are keeping ozempic and wegovy prices so high. Hard to have marketable generics that are competitive with the ready dose pens. Same goes for insulin, epipens, etc. They monopolize delivery when they can no longer monopolize the drug itself.

 

Down 15 pounds in 9 weeks. 1/4 of the way to my goal.

 

while the pens are technically more expensive than the api (when excluding r&d, if the drug factory is already amortized, etc) there are minimal barriers keeping competitors from using some other shitty device or just selling it as a multi dose vial with a syringe once the drug patents expire, they just don’t typically because patients usually don’t like the shitty device if given a choice. And that is not currently what is preventing competition, the patents on the drug itself are.

this is also not true re insulin (there have been many advances on making Insulin molecules that are longer acting, for example, and true human insulin has always been available over the counter, just nobody actually knows that, it predates the FD&C) and things like rebates, which employers and pbms love, are bigger barriers to some of these injectables not declining in price as they would rather take the big rebate than sell the lower priced alternative.

It is very complicated, and yes, your employer who provides your insurance is partially complicit with why things are the fucked up way they are.

Humira is a good example where competition really only started to impact things once the PBMs figured out a way of being able to make money that wasn’t explicitly tied to the rebate stream, yet likely violates anti trust law by directly selling a competitor to the branded product.

https://www.drugchannels.net/2024/09/humira-biosimilar-price-war-update.html?m=1

if anyone has questions on drug / insurance related stuff feel free to pm and I’ll help if I can.

 

I was gunna ask if everyone's is in a pen, cause my wife's sure aint

 

It won’t be from a compounding pharmacy. My partner had monjuro covered for a little while, then it got denied. She’s taking a maintenance dose from a compounding pharmacy and gets a vial with multiple doses and syringes.

 

Developed Achilles tendinitis which has slowed me down. Doc wants less steps and more low impact with lots of stretching, so hello peloton cycle, good bye Peloton Tread for the meantime.

but finally hit 184.6 which means I now have a “healthy” BMI so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

goal was 180 by the end of the year when I started at 265, so I’m almost there

 

You must feel awesome. I dropped about the same as you, 255 > 180 back in summer 2020.

 

it’s very nice

yeah, I’m just walking and doing 5 min warm up and 15-20 minute low impact cycles (not HITT) then 5 min cool down and stretching afterwards

still starting every day with a 20 min full body mobility and sneaking in stretching and ice pack when I notice discomfort in the arch or heel