Although Ozempic and other weight loss drugs are often associated with Hollywood and celebrities, the highest rates of prescriptions for these popular drugs is actually in the southern United States.
Kentucky is the state with the highest rate of people with a prescription to a class of drugs known as incretins, Bloomberg reports, citing data from the health tech company PurpleLab.
These drugs work by mimicking hormones that regulate blood sugar and suppress appetite. They were originally used to treat type-2 diabetes, but have become highly sought after for their appetite-altering side effects. Popular brands of these treatments include Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound.
About 1 in 15 Kentucky residents, or 6.8%, have a prescription for one of these medications. Coming in second place is Alabama, followed by West Virginia, Mississippi, and Georgia.
Among Kentucky’s urban areas, the city of Bowling Green has the highest rate of prescriptions. About 4% of the 74,000 residents in Kentucky’s third-largest city are prescribed an incretin medication. The prescriptions rates for larger U.S. metro area such as Brooklyn and Miami is closer to 1%.
Bowling Green has the perfect conditions to make it one of the weight loss drug capitals in the country, according to Bloomberg. For one, Kentucky has the 10th highest rate of obesity among U.S. states. Bowling Green also has a large middle class with jobs from large employers offering insurance plans that cover these drugs.
However, even though many people in Bowling Green have a prescription to a weight loss drug, like the rest of the country they’re having an increasingly hard time getting them filled.
Skyrocketing demand for incretin drugs in recent years has transformed Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk into the most valuable pharmaceutical companies in the world. However, increased demand has been a challenge to meet for these companies. Novo Nordisk’s and Eli Lilly’s incretin treatments are both listed on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s shortage database.
Bloomberg reports that this has led to a cottage industry in Bowling Green of med spas and pharmacies selling off-brand versions of these treatments.