What Can Social Media Do to a Weight Loss Drug?
When Mounjaro came on the market, TikTok went wild. People with obesity ordered the drug in droves thanks to a coupon that allowed them to access it for just $25 a month. Then the coupon went away, leaving destruction in its wake — and obese patients warring with diabetics. Emily Farache reports on a drug predicted to become the best-selling medication of all time
Kay thought she’d finally made it. After years of diets, exercise routines, failed obesity treatments and shame for being overweight, the 49-year-old teacher from Missouri found a medication that helped her lose 25 pounds in three months. “It was life-changing,” she says. In addition to shedding weight, Kay experienced other changes that seemed almost miraculous. She quickly noticed the painful cramping from her fibroids disappear and the swelling in her legs vanish. “I could go for walks again,” Kay told me. She even stopped taking Wellbutrin. “It became about far more than just weight loss.”
Then it was all taken away. The new diabetes drug Mounjaro was behind Kay’s weight loss, but when the manufacturer, Eli Lilly, changed its coupon terms her transformation became unaffordable — and unsustainable.
Excerpted from Independent
