A surge in South Africans\u2019 claims for blockbuster GLP-1 medicines used for weight loss is creating new business opportunities in the booming market as insurers, drugmakers and startups look for ways to make expensive treatments that may require long-term use financially sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of people claiming for blockbuster GLP-1 medicines through Discovery, which administers the country\u2019s largest private-health plan, has almost tripled to 61,200 members in the three years through 2025, even as they claim for the drugs for an average of just 5.4 months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet the plan doesn\u2019t provide a dedicated chronic-medicine benefit for the drugs when used specifically for obesity, leaving patients to draw on day-to-day benefits, including medical savings, or pay themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discovery cautions that the claims data don\u2019t necessarily reflect how long patients remain on treatment and says it can\u2019t determine how many stop claiming because of cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, affordability has become a central challenge in the rapidly growing market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCost is therefore an important barrier, particularly where treatment is paid for out of pocket,\u201d said Mosima Mabunda, chief clinical officer of Discovery Vitality, the company\u2019s wellness-benefits program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obiflex, a doctor-led weight-management company that\u2019s partnering with Novo Nordisk, is allowing patients to finance GLP-1 programmes through interest-free instalments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Novo is financially supporting development of the buy-now, pay-later platform and a WhatsApp-based patient-support programme, though it doesn\u2019t bear any of the credit risk, the drugmaker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The firm expects a default rate of about 5% and is initially carrying that risk on its own balance sheet while using credit checks and requiring payment before subsequent medication is dispatched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to just make the medicine more affordable,\u201d said Shaun Barns, co-founder and chief executive officer of Obiflex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want to offer proper medical support, coaching and a way to pay for GLP-1s.\u201d The company is also planning to approach companies about employer-subsidised access, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discovery is taking another route, expanding its HealthyWeight programme to include doctor-led assessments for anti-obesity medicines where clinically appropriate, alongside nutrition, exercise and behavioral support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The medicines generally remain for the member\u2019s account, but under a new benefit, qualifying members of its Group Risk business can earn incentive points for meeting physical-activity goals, helping offset some of the drug cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Aspen Pharmacare, which generated about R1.5 billion in South African sales of Eli Lilly & Co.\u2019s Mounjaro, is preparing a generic semaglutide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
CEO Stephen Saad has said he expects generic GLP-1s globally to cost at least 50% less than current branded medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Novo is also seeking to bring down the cost of treatment through price adjustments and lower-priced authorised copies of its medicines, while working with health plans and insurers to expand coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The combination of lower drug prices and new ways to finance treatment could ultimately determine how far South Africa\u2019s rapidly growing GLP-1 market can expand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy hope and dream is that we can offer these programs cheaper and cheaper continuously,\u201d Barns said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Claims for GLP-1 medications have surged at Discovery in recent years, as businesses seek to make these treatments more affordable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":863538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2105671335426822628","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2223026025184463","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18069127958505575","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[13435,4883,26676,26677],"class_list":["post-877884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-aspen","tag-discovery","tag-glp-1","tag-mosima-mabunda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877887,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877884\/revisions\/877887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}