Briana Lawson was ready to knock her diabetes into remission. For years, the 47-year-old health care consultant had treated her high blood sugar with metformin. But to avoid a lifetime of medication, she knew she’d need to lose weight. She’d tried fad diets, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, and had even considered surgery when the results didn’t stick. When she started reading about GLP-1 receptor agonists — which, last year, became the first new FDA-approved chronic weight management drug since 2014 — she was ready to give them a try.
“Once I was ready to consider the GLP-1s and did a lot of research,” said Lawson, “then I had to figure out, how do I get it?”
She didn’t have to look far. With enthusiasm for a new class of drugs has come dozens of telehealth companies ready to prescribe them. Online searches surfaced an ad for Found, a virtual weight loss coaching program that can be paired with a drug prescription for $149 a month. Another pointed to Calibrate, a $1,650, year-long online program that guarantees 10% weight loss with coaching and the prescription of an oral or injectable GLP-1, including Novo Nordisk’s recently-approved Wegovy.
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