Skipped doses, delayed refills, and a pharmacy label some people can't read. The CDC just put numbers on how Americans actually take these drugs. Then a first for China's obesity market, and two health systems describe what Medicare's fifty-dollar GLP-1 program looks like from the pharmacy counter. It's Friday, November 13, and this is GLP-1 Daily. We start with the federal data. Tap follow so the next episode finds you.
Samantha Pierce and colleagues at the CDC, in Thursday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report:
Based on data from CDC’s Rapid Surveys System collected during July–August 2025, approximately one in 10 adults reported GLP-1 medication use in the past year. Among GLP-1 medication users, approximately one in five reported taking a compounded version. Approximately two in five GLP-1 medication users reported modifying their medication use, often citing cost and availability as barriers.
The details are where it stings. Forty-four percent of users changed how they took the drug, and skipping doses was the most common change, at 28 percent. Among adults under 40, 54 percent modified their use, versus 30 percent of those 65 and up. And 58 percent of the younger group who modified cited cost. Compounded use was 22.6 percent of users, and almost 9 percent didn't know whether theirs was compounded. People on compounded versions were more likely to modify their use, 62 percent versus 36. And compounded use was higher among people with private insurance than public. That's not a story about reckless patients. It's people with coverage that doesn't cover this, working around the gap. Caveats, and they matter. This is self-reported, from online panels with low cumulative response rates, 13.3 and 3.8 percent, though the CDC weights to national surveys. The data are from summer 2025, before this year's Medicare Bridge. About 8,100 people answered, 976 of them GLP-1 users. The authors disclosed no conflicts of interest. Also, the survey didn't ask about registration, so it can't separate registered compounding pharmacies from anything else. If you've been stretching doses to make a supply last, tell your prescriber. They can't help with a cost problem they don't know about.
Andrew Silver and Patrick Wingrove, writing in The Independent:
Chinese regulators have approved Eli Lilly's orforglipron, making the US company the first drugmaker to win clearance in the country for a GLP-1 weight-loss pill. The decision, announced on Thursday, hands Lilly an early advantage over its Danish rival Novo Nordisk in the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market.
Orforglipron is the pill sold here as Foundayo. Until now, China had only approved GLP-1s for weight management as injections. Pharmaceutical Technology counts Foundayo as approved in the U.S., the U.K., the United Arab Emirates and now China. What we don't know: price. Lilly says it will supply authorized healthcare and pharmaceutical institutions, and it didn't comment on what the pill will cost. Which is the only number a patient in China needs. Novo says China accepted its application for the Wegovy pill in August, and local firms Jiangsu Hengrui and Huadong Medicine have pills in development. One flag on the comparison you'll see in the coverage. Oral Wegovy at about 14 percent weight loss over 64 weeks, Foundayo at about 11 over 72. Those come from separate studies, not a head-to-head trial, so they don't settle which pill works better. And for U.S. listeners, this changes nothing about your own access today.
Becker's Hospital Review, from a panel at its Fall Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit:
Dr. Weber said some patients arrived July 1 expecting the drug for $50 a month, only to learn they did not qualify. That required “some service recovery,” he said.
That's Dr. Chris Weber, of Ascension Wisconsin. We last checked on the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge on Monday, November 9, with Forbes reporting about 1.1 million sign-ups but only around 700,000 fills. This is the view from the systems doing the paperwork. Ascension switched on centralized prior authorizations at a few small primary care clinics, turned it off two weeks later because of the volume, and hired two people. Cleveland Clinic moved prior authorizations under its pharmacy team. And look at the diagnosis code. Patients need an obesity diagnosis on the chart to qualify. At Ascension, documentation rose to 80 or 90 percent when an executive tracked it, then drifted back down when the directive went away. Whether you qualify can depend on whether someone typed a word. Weber's line was that coverage isn't treatment. Cleveland Clinic adds shared medical appointments and pharmacists for titration and follow-up. And the clock. Bridge is set to end December 31, 2027. Cleveland Clinic's Diana Isaacs said nobody knows what happens in 2028. If you're on Medicare and think you qualify, ask your prescriber's office whether your chart reflects the diagnosis and which pharmacy your prescription is routed to.
The CDC asked about skipped doses. We'd rather hear it from you. Have cost or supply changed how you take your GLP-1? Tell us at glp1daily at lantern podcasts dot com.
Over the weekend, we'll be watching for a price on Lilly's pill in China. Nothing here is medical advice, so take your questions to the clinician who manages your treatment. GLP-1 Daily is a Lantern Podcast, and our next episode arrives Monday, November 16.