STAT+: During JPM week, virtual care companies strut their plans to make GLP-1 drugs work harder, cost less

At the J.P. Morgan Health Care conference this week in San Francisco, drugmakers had their sights set on the next generation of GLP-1 medications, alternatives, and a growing list of indications beyond diabetes and obesity. Meanwhile, the digital health industry was squarely focused on managing the impact of existing drugs, which have placed enormous pressure on health care spending.

As the popularity and cumulative cost of Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide and Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide have come into focus, telehealth and digital health companies have responded with offerings that claim to help employers and payers lower their price tag, sometimes through partnerships with pharmacy benefit managers. And during JPM week, a flurry of them doubled down with the publication of new research and offerings targeting GLP-1 outcomes and cost management.

As millions of Americans have attempted GLP-1s in the last two years, many digital health companies have shifted their pitches from maximizing the drugs’ clinical impact to avoiding weight regain after a patient goes off medication. “Payers especially don’t want to be paying for somebody to be on a lifetime of medication,” said Alex Lennox-Miller, a health care and life sciences analyst at SVB.

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