Americans spent $71 billion on weight loss drugs in 2023 - as much as the country spent on foreign aid

Weight loss drugs such as Ozempic saw a spike in growth as they gained attention on social media

Americans shelled out an estimated $71 billion for weight-loss drugs in 2023 - that is as much as the U.S. government disbursed in foreign aid the same year, according to ForeignAssistance.gov.

Researchers say that sum marks a more than 500 percent increase in GLP-1 class drugs from 2018 to 2023, with spending in 2018 just under $14 billion. The greatest rate of growth — reported at 62 percent — occurred between 2022 and 2023, as Ozempic garnered interest on social media.

The findings are indicative of the rising popularity of the drugs, which have gained traction nationwide following celebrity and influencer transformations. They are called GLP-1 drugs because they work by mimicking the effects of a naturally occurring hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 and helping to lower blood sugar.

“This study estimated that more than $71 billion was spent on [GLP-1s] and more than $50 billion on a product based on either semaglutide or tirzepatide molecules,” the authors at the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention said.

The U.S. spent an estimated $71 billion on GLP-1 class weight loss drugs like Ozempic in 2023. That sum is a more than 500 percent increase over the previous five years (Getty Images/iStock)

The research was published recently in an open letter in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The study, which was exempt from review because it did not involve human participants, used data on spending among U.S. adults from the company Symphony Health. They relied on software to conduct the analysis, also finding that spending for some of the GLP-1 drugs had declined while others had increased.

For example, spending for Ozempic increased from $0.4 billion to $26.4 billion, but combined spending on Victoza, Bydureon and Byetta decreased by $4 billion from $7.1 billion to $3.1 billion.

“Spending on semaglutide (Rybelsus), semagalutide (Wegovy), and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) has only increased since their introduction,” the authors said.

Ozempic and the oral Rybelsus have both been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat diabetes. Wegovy has been approved for weight loss for people with at least one weight-related health comorbidity.

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk makes the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy. It also makes the oral Rybelsus (Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

The increased spending can be linked to a wider variety of options, they said. Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Wegovy were both released after 2021.

However, there were some limitations to their research. The datasets they utilized excluded sales at compound pharmacies and spending estimates frequently lack transparency at the product level. Because of the limitations, the actual spending is “likely somewhat lower than our estimates,” the researchers noted.

Still, in the future, expanded options could continue to drive demand and spending. The weight loss drug market is forecast to increase to $105 billion by 2030.

“Challenges in long-term adherence, spending in competition with other health care costs, lack of price transparency, and the integration of new products and indications will continue to drive demand for ongoing research in this area,” the study said.