ICER Finds Insurers Struggled to Provide Fair Access to Obesity Drugs

Major payer coverage policies for 11 drugs often met fair access criteria, according to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review’s (ICER) fourth annual Barriers to Fair Access assessment.¹ Where insurers struggled to provide fair access was with several antiobesity drugs, which include semaglutide (Ozempic), liraglutide (Saxenda), phentermine/topiramate (Qsymia), and naltrexone/bupropion (Contrave).

Reviewers found a 70% alignment with ICER criteria for fair access—what the organization calls concordance—for glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist semaglutide and phentermine/topiramate, an oral medication that helps control…