Wegovy and other GLP-1 obesity and blood sugar control drugs accounted for 17% of pharmacy benefits spending at CBIZ employer clients with self-funded health plans in 2024, up from 13% in 2023, according to a new health care report.
The broker’s clients spent spent $125 million on GLP-1 agonist drugs. That’s up from $81 million in 2023 and $42 million in 2022.
Ozempic, a GLP-1 agonist classified officially as a drug for fighting diabetes, was the most popular drug in the GLP-1 category. About 6,500 participants in CBIZ plans were using that drug.
The other top-five GLP-1 agonists were Mounjaro, Wegovy, Zepbound and Trulicity.
In a separate benefits benchmarking report, CBIZ said that the typical employer client with 1 to 99 employees and preferred provider organization coverage spent $9,119 per employee for individual coverage and $24,842 for family coverage.
At employers with 100 or more employees, the average per-employee spending for all kinds of coverage was $8,435 for an individual and $23,968.
CVIZ is a Cleveland-based professional services firm with about 4,500 benefit plan clients.
The CBIZ report is a part of a wave of GLP-1 data sources now emerging.
The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans said that 36% of the employers it surveyed now cover GLP-1 agonists for both weight-loss and diabetes, up from 34% in 2024.
Fair Health said the percentage of overweight or obese patients who received a GLP-1 prescription increased to about $11% in 2024, from 2.5% in 2019.