Can PBMs Keep Their Lofty GLP-1 Cost Control Promises?

As demand for GLP-1s has grown, so has the desire of plan sponsors and other payers to avoid covering the costly drugs as “lifestyle” products — instead, they want to allow only patients who will derive clear medical benefits from GLP-1s to use them. To address that desire, vertically integrated payer-PBMs, among other vendors, have launched buy-up services for commercial plan sponsors that promise to curb demand for GLP-1s by making other weight loss care more available to patients.

Experts say it’s not clear whether those programs will make a difference for patients — or be worth the money for payers.

© 2025 MMIT
Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson

Peter has worked as a journalist since 2011 and has covered health care since 2020. At AIS Health, Peter covers trends in finance, business and policy that affect the health insurance and pharma sectors. For Health Plan Weekly, he covers all aspects of the U.S. health insurance sector, including employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the Affordable Care Act individual marketplaces. In Radar on Drug Benefits, Peter covers the operations of (and conflicts between) pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a particular focus on pricing dynamics and market access. Before joining AIS Health, Peter covered transportation, public safety and local government for various outlets in Seattle, his hometown and current place of residence. He graduated with a B.A. from Colby College.

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