Monitoring Report: GLP-1 RA Prescribing Trends - December 2023 Data

BackgroundLimited recent data exist on prescribing patterns and patient characteristics for glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), an important drug class used as anti-diabetic medication (ADM) for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and/or anti-obesity medication (AOM) in patients with overweight or obesity. For brevity, we use the term GLP-1 RA to refer to both GLP-1 RA and dual GLP-1 RA/GIP medications. ObjectiveTo describe recent trends in prescribing and dispensing of GLP-1-based medications in the US. MethodsUsing a subset of real-world electronic health record (EHR) data from Truveta, a growing collective of health systems that provide more than 18% of all daily clinical care in the US, we identified people who were prescribed a GLP-1-based medication between January 01, 2018 and September 30, 2024. We describe prescribing volumes and patient characteristics over time, by medication, and by FDA-labeled use. Among the subset of patients for whom post-prescription dispensing data is available, we describe the proportion and characteristics of patients who were and were not dispensed a GLP-1 RA following their prescription. Results1,449,442 patients were prescribed a GLP-1 RA between January 2018 and September 2024, with 6,341,367 total prescriptions during this period. Among first-time prescriptions for which use could be established, ADMs accounted for 80.3% and AOMs accounted for 19.7%. The most common first-time medication was semaglutide (n = 821,890). Among those with available data, 69.5% of first-time ADM prescriptions overall and 70.6% in June 2024 had a fill within 60 days. By comparison, 45.4% of first-time AOM prescriptions overall and 50.1% in June 2024 had a fill within 60 days.