Health
How Much Should Weight Loss Drugs Like Wegovy and Zepbound Cost?
It’s easy to make a medical case for blockbuster weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, which have been shown to prevent heart attacks and strokes and save lives.
But for the employers and government programs being asked to pay for the medications, the financial case for them is less clear. Are the drugs’ benefits worth their enormous cost?
The answer right now is no, according to a new study published on Friday in the journal JAMA Health Forum, by researchers at the University of Chicago.
To be considered cost effective by a common measure used by health economists, the price of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy would need to be cut by over 80 percent, to $127 per month, the researchers concluded. And Eli Lilly’s Zepbound would be cost effective only if its price fell by nearly a third, to $361 per month. (Zepbound warranted a higher price, the researchers said, because it produced greater benefits in clinical trials.)
“There’s no doubt that the drugs are demonstrating tremendous health benefits,” said David Kim, a health economist at the University of Chicago and the senior author of the study, which was funded by government grants. “The problem is the price is too high.”
There’s widespread hope that the drugs will effectively pay for themselves in the long run, by making patients healthier and preventing expensive medical bills. It’s not clear yet whether that will turn out to be true.
Eli Lilly rejected the new study’s findings, arguing that it ignored the results of several clinical trials in which the company’s drug had shown benefit. It instead used “a limited data set to draw sweeping conclusions,” said Courtney Kasinger, a spokeswoman for the company. And Liz Skrbkova, a spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, said there are “no universally accepted thresholds for what determines a drug to be cost-effective.”
Employers and government programs pay different prices for the drugs, and those numbers are almost always kept a secret. The University of Chicago researchers estimated the price for Wegovy to be $700 per month, on average, compared with $520 for Zepbound.
Huge demand for the drugs has caused employers’ drug costs to balloon, prompting some companies to impose restrictions on who can get them, or stop covering the medications altogether. Con Edison, the energy utility that serves New York City and Westchester County, recently said it needed to raise rates to offset increased expenses that included a surge in spending on weight loss drugs.
Medicare covers the drugs for patients with diabetes, and a much smaller subset of people who contend with both obesity and another health condition, like a heart problem, or sleep apnea. Congress has resisted expanding coverage for millions more older people who are overweight or obese, because it would be so expensive.
Patients who pay for the drugs using their own money instead of going through insurance face varying prices; some pay more than $1,300 per month. But for a low dose of Zepbound, patients can pay $350 out of pocket, a price the University of Chicago researchers considered cost-effective.
To come up with their estimates, researchers ran computer simulations of what might happen if people who were overweight or obese took one of the weight loss drugs for the remainder of their lives. Based on the results from clinical trials, the model projected benefits that might accrue over the long run. Many overweight patients would never become obese, for example. Other patients would avert diabetes or heart disease. They would stay productive, and out of the hospital.
These benefits added up to many years of good health — so-called quality-adjusted life years. Many health economists think it’s reasonable for society to pay $100,000 for each such healthy year. But in the model, the years of good health provided by Wegovy and Zepbound cost much more.
Drug companies often push back fiercely against such cost-effectiveness analyses, saying they fail to capture the true value medications can bring to patients and societies. Still, they sometimes fund such studies. An analysis financed by Novo Nordisk, similar to that by the University of Chicago researchers, found the company’s weight loss drug to be cost-effective.
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For some men, March Madness isn’t just about brackets — it’s also prime time for a vasectomy.
Previous research has shown that demand for the procedure tends to spike during the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments, which are held every spring.
Some surgeons have agreed that this is a real phenomenon, largely because the steady stream of games offers the perfect activity for men recovering on the couch.
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A vasectomy is a simple surgical procedure for men that blocks the vas deferens, the tube that transports sperm, serving as a permanent form of contraception.
Recovery typically takes a few days to a week, with doctors recommending rest for 48 hours and light activity soon after.
Previous research has shown that demand for vasectomies tends to spike during the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments, which are held every spring. (iStock)
David Gentile, MD, chief of the department of urology at Highland Hospital, recently spoke to the University of Rochester Medical Center about the uptick in vasectomies during March Madness.
“It’s a great excuse to watch without interruption.”
“We tell patients they should plan on going home and putting their feet up after a vasectomy, so timing the procedure to watch some games while you recover works well,” he said.
“And it’s a great excuse to watch without interruption, as you won’t be able to do physical labor around the house while you’re recovering.”
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Jim Dupree, MD, associate professor of urology at Michigan Medicine, has also spoken about the trend.
“Major sporting events are a popular time for men to schedule a vasectomy because we advise them to take it easy for two to three days after the procedure,” he said in a press release for Michigan Medicine.
A vasectomy is a simple surgical procedure for men that blocks the vas deferens, the tube that transports sperm, serving as a permanent form of contraception. (iStock)
“For most men, this means sitting on the couch in front of their television, and sporting events offer them something to watch while resting.”
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Yet another surgeon, Dr. Ali Dabaja, director of male reproductive and sexual medicine at the Vattikuti Urology Institute at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, weighed in on the topic in 2024.
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“After a vasectomy, we ask men to rest, not to lift anything heavy, and to go back to light duties during that week. So, timing the procedure for watching some games while you recover works well, and it’s a great excuse to watch March Madness without interruption,” he told the Urology Care Foundation.
“Historically, we have usually seen a rise in vasectomy consultations and vasectomies during March Madness,” he went on. “Other urology offices have reported a rise in vasectomies between 20% to 40%.”
“After a vasectomy, we ask men to rest, not to lift anything heavy, and to go back to light duties during that week, a surgeon said. (iStock)
A 2018 study published in the journal Urology found that March was one of the higher-volume months for vasectomy procedures, but the highest peaks were actually later in the year, particularly November and December.
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There were some limitations to that study, primarily that the monthly variation was observational, and the data lacked context of patients’ behaviors and scheduling.
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A pesticide commonly used in America’s food supply has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, new research suggests.
A UCLA study published in the journal Springer Nature Link suggests that exposure to chlorpyrifos could increase the risk of the neurological disease.
The chemical is often used on agricultural products like soybeans, fruit and nut trees, broccoli, cauliflower and other row crops, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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The study compared 829 people with Parkinson’s to 824 people without the disease over a 45-year period, focusing on their proximity to chlorpyrifos.
The researchers also conducted mouse experiments, where mice inhaled the pesticide as humans would for 11 weeks. Experiments were also carried out on zebrafish to study cell-level brain damage.
Chlorpyrifos is often used on agricultural products like soybeans, fruit and nut trees, broccoli, cauliflower and other row crops, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (iStock)
In humans, the study revealed that long-term exposure to chlorpyrifos led to more than a 2.5 times higher risk of Parkinson’s.
In mice, exposure to the pesticide caused movement problems similar to Parkinson’s symptoms, loss of dopamine-producing neurons, increased brain inflammation and build-up of harmful proteins.
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Zebrafish suffered brain cell death and damage linked to failure in the cell’s “cleanup system,” according to the study press release.
Dr. Jeff Bronstein, director of the Movement Disorders Program at UCLA and professor of neurology and molecular toxicology, noted that previous human studies also suggested an association between chlorpyrifos exposure and Parkinson’s.
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“[We were] surprised that the mechanism of toxicity was apparent in both mice and zebrafish,” he said. “We rarely find such consistent results in different animal models.”
A researcher commented that the consistency in results between human and animal subjects is “rare.” (iStock)
The researcher emphasized that the association between pesticide exposure and Parkinson’s was “very strong,” and the longer someone was exposed, the higher the risk became.
“People should avoid exposure to CPF and similar pesticides (organophosphates) by not using them in their home, eating organics, and washing fruits and vegetables before eating them,” Bronstein advised.
Study limitations
The study did have some limitations, the researchers acknowledged, primarily that it was observational, meaning it shows an association but cannot prove causation.
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It also estimated exposure based on participants’ locations, and did not measure diet, indoor exposure or personal lifestyle behaviors. Additionally, the results of the animal models can’t be translated directly to humans.
There was also the possibility that chlorpyrifos was used along with other chemicals, which means it could be difficult to measure its specific impact, the study noted.
Chlorpyrifos is used to control different kinds of pests, like termites, mosquitoes and roundworms, among crops. (iStock)
Industry reaction
Chlorpyrifos is used to control different kinds of pests, like termites, mosquitoes and roundworms, among crops, according to the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) at Oregon State University.
People can be exposed to the pesticide by breathing it in or by consuming contaminated food or water.
In 2021, the EPA banned the use of chlorpyrifos on food crops, but a federal appeals court overturned that decision in 2023, allowing its use to resume on some crops while regulators revisit the rule.
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In January 2026, the EPA issued an update outlining plans to move forward with a rule that would ban most uses of chlorpyrifos.
“Chlorpyrifos is subject to registration review, a process required under FIFRA (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act) in which registered pesticides are comprehensively evaluated every 15 years against current safety standards and the latest scientific evidence,” the EPA said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital.
“EPA is currently developing a revised human health risk assessment for chlorpyrifos as part of that review, and will consider this study alongside any other relevant submissions,” the agency said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital. (Getty)
“EPA is currently developing a revised human health risk assessment for chlorpyrifos as part of that review, and will consider this study alongside any other relevant submissions. Where the science calls for stronger protections or tolerance revocations, EPA will act without hesitation and without delay.”
Fox News Digital reached out to several manufacturers of the chemical for comment.
“People should avoid exposure to CPF and similar pesticides.”
Corteva, an Indiana agrichemical company formed in 2019 through the merger of Dow Chemical and DuPont, announced in 2020 that it would end production of chlorpyrifos within the year, citing declining sales.
In April 2022, the German chemical company BASF requested the cancellation of its pesticide registrations for products containing chlorpyrifos.
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“BASF does not manufacture chlorpyrifos and does not have any pesticide registrations issued by the U.S. EPA for chlorpyrifos-containing products,” the company told Fox News Digital.
No products from Corteva or BASF were included in the study linking chlorpyrifos to Parkinson’s disease.
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