A few weeks after Wegovy, it is the turn of a new anti-obesity drug to be available in France: Mounjaro. Price, effects, conditions of use… Here's what you need to know.
Written on 14/11/2024
Allodocteurs – Newen Digital
A wave of new generation anti-obesity drugs is sweeping France. After Ozempic and Wegovy, now time for Mounjaro. This drug produced by the American laboratory Eli Lilly is now marketed in France, the health authorities announced on Wednesday November 13, a few weeks after the emblematic Wegovy from Novo Nordisk.
“The drug Mounjaro – tirzepatide – has been marketed since November 2024“, indicated the National Medicines Agency (ANSM) in a press release, reporting conditions just as strict as those in force for Wegovy, based on the semaglutide molecule, which also contains the anti-diabetic Ozempic. These treatments , as well as Saxenda (liraglutide) also developed by Novo Nordisk, are part of the GLP-1 agonist family.
Who can benefit from Mounjaro?
Initially developed against diabetes, they have given unprecedented results in helping to lose weight and are hailed by specialists as a possible therapeutic revolution, even if concerns remain about their side effects and the risk of seeing them taken outside the any medical check-up.
In this context, the arrival of Mounjaro is under the same conditions as Wegovy, marketed since October: without reimbursement and under very strict prescription conditions. They can only be prescribed by certain specialists, only for patients with marked obesity – above a body mass index of 35 -, and only when a change in diet alone has not been enough. to weight loss.
Also read: A new effect of Ozempic highlighted: it concerns the taste of food
At what price is Mounjaro sold?
These conditions correspond to the recommendations of the High Authority for Health (HAS) which was also not able to determine whether Wegovy or Mounjaro should be favored in the treatment of obesity. The HAS has also recommended the reimbursement of these drugs in these specific indications, but it is currently awaiting negotiations initiated by the laboratories to set their final price.
However, Wegovy is offered until 2025 to a few thousand patients who had benefited from it as part of an experiment. Mounjaro was particularly exposed in the media in the United Kingdom where the government signed a partnership worth several hundred million pounds with Eli Lilly with the aim of promoting access to this treatment, and with the stated objective that overweight people can “return to work“.
