Surprisingly, Insurers Cover 30% of Qsymia Rx’s in First Week

October 3, 2012 — Qsymia is the first new prescription weight loss medication on the market in over 10 years, and many, including the innovator company Vivus, thought that this new medication would not be reimbursed by health plans. Payers and many experts were surprised then, by the news that Qsymia was covered by health insurers more often than anticipated in its first week on the market.

“The obesity drug market probably will expand slowly,” Simos Simeonidis, an analyst with Cowen & Co., said in an interview with Bloomberg, as patients and doctors learn more about the two newly approved medications and who should take them. He noted that the biggest demand for Qysmia is from obesity specialists, and that family practice and generalists will take longer to adopt using these new tools to treat obesity. Those specializing in treating this disease as a career understand obesity treatment best, and as they use Qysmia and Belviq, approved by the FDA in June, other physicians will follow.

Click here to read the Bloomberg article.