CNN Exclusive: Older weight loss drugs are making a comeback as Zepbound, Wegovy remain out of reach for many

Older medicines have several benefits, including that they’re more affordable, are less likely to be in shortage, come with different side effects and are pills instead of injections.

For Christy Nguyen, menopause hit just as the Covid-19 pandemic did. With both, she said, came unwanted weight gain. “I had gained 30 pounds in about two years, and so I was sort of desperate to find something” to help with weight loss, the 56-year-old mother of two said. She’d tried WeightWatchers and the keto diet, hoping to lose weight and be able to stop taking her recently prescribed medicines for high blood pressure and cholesterol. But nothing seemed to work. That’s how Nguyen found herself on a 15-month journey through a new class of medications like Ozempic and Wegovy. Known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, they’re exploding in popularity but can sometimes be impossible to get because of insurance hurdles and shortages. Like an increasing number of patients, Nguyen began taking a decades-old prescription drug for weight loss instead. “People come in the door seeking treatment with a GLP-1, and then for whatever reason, they can’t get it or change their mind,” said Nguyen’s physician, Dr. Jody Dushay of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Older weight-loss medicines have several benefits, Dushay said. They can be more affordable, even out-of-pocket; are less likely to be in shortage; come with different side effects than Wegovy and similar drugs; and are pills instead of injections. As overall prescriptions of weight-loss drugs have soared, those for older medicines in the category have as well – although on a more modest scale than drugs like Wegovy, according to data from Epic Research provided exclusively to CNN.