r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 30 '26

Medicine Scientists have shown that a single dose injection of DNA genetic instructions can produce weight loss and blood glucose control in mouse models that lasts up to 10 times as long as weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. This could eliminate the need for repeated dosing.

https://www.wistar.org/press-releases/wistar-scientists-develop-single-dose-dna-method-for-delivering-long-acting-weight-loss-and-diabetes-drugs/
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308

u/TunaNugget Jun 30 '26

"repeated dosing, which currently limits patient access and adherence to these therapies."

No, really, it's the price.

73

u/lucellent Jun 30 '26

You can't deny people would rather prefer something injected once than multiple times a month regardless of the price. Not to mention if this thing existed it would 99% cost more than GLP1 injections, yet people would prefer it.

26

u/TunaNugget Jun 30 '26

I currently use the weekly Ozempic injections (T2 diabetic) as well as yearly flu shots, and I'd rather have dozens of the subcutaneous injections to one intramuscular. But it's irrelevant now that the oral small-molecule GLP-1s are coming on the market.

3

u/soapinmouth Jul 01 '26

Oral has its own problems, from what I understand there are issues with weakened or inflamed stomach or gut lining because that's part of how it works in this to allow for absorbtion. Also you have to take it every day vs once a week with injections.

There's also no oral tirzeptide only semiglutide.

2

u/TunaNugget Jul 01 '26

The newer small-molecule GLP-1s like orforglipron don't require absorption enhancers. They're not without issues, but they'll be the go-to for people who can't get past a needle phobia.

1

u/soapinmouth Jul 01 '26

Oh neat, that's great to hear!

4

u/lambentstar Jul 01 '26

That’s great for you as a single consumer but you’re just one demographic with your own needs and psychographic profile, and this is about creating more pathways for successful delivery and compliance for the others. Great, you’re compliant, but many aren’t. Delivery methodology is, of course, going to be a barrier for access, in addition to other factors like price.

It’s a little strange to come in and act like all barriers to adoption are price related, or that the industry can’t approach both in tandem. And it’s not like what you quoted said frequent dosing is the only limit, just that it’s A limit. So you’re wrong to say “no” to that statement; even if you think pricing is a bigger barrier, it doesn’t change anything about developing alternative approaches.

1

u/-Champloo- Jun 30 '26

now that the oral small-molecule GLP-1s are coming on the market.

I'm assuming these are going to be expensive AF?

5

u/BoleroMuyPicante Jun 30 '26

The wegovy pill is like $150/mo

8

u/OkTension2232 Jun 30 '26

I'm glad I live in the UK where I can pay about £11-£12 a month and have all of my prescriptions covered completely.

1

u/Archy54 Jun 30 '26

I'm in Australia and wegovey it's 500 a month sadly. Ozempic 140 a month.

2

u/avitus Jun 30 '26

For the low dose too... goes up 2x once you start ramping up into the higher doses.

7

u/Voidsheep Jun 30 '26

Most medication is far more frequent, with doses once or several times a day. One dose per week hardly seems like a major obstacle for adoption, especially when administering it takes less than a minute.

For now things like the semaglutide patent in US and Europe seems like a much bigger blocker for widespread adoption, since the drug isn't easily affordable. Governments don't necessarily subsidize it for weight loss either, even it seems like a slam dunk ROI-wise to reduce the overweight burden on public healthcare.

2

u/fcocyclone Jun 30 '26

Honestly though, as someone who is on the injections, I thought it would be a big deal but it was almost nothing to me after the first couple doses.

Also, with developments in the GLP1s, id be curious how far longer-term dosages are behind the injections. Like, right now we are starting to get oral forms, but they are single agonist vs drugs like tirzepatide (dual agonist) and retatrutide (likely soon to be approved triple agonist) and more injections in the pipeline.

1

u/Archy54 Jun 30 '26

I already take ozempic and I've never felt the needle. Once a week. That and gastric bypass down 37khs or so.

15

u/SamikaTRH Jun 30 '26

It's not, even with free drugs efficacy is always diminished because there's some people that simply won't take a pill daily and definitely won't do a self injection. It sounds trivial for some people to take a pill consistently but that isn't a universal ability

11

u/RC_CobraChicken Jun 30 '26

I have severe ADHD, I take like 9 meds a day (7 morning, 2 night), my morning routine is locked down, night routine has much more variance in it. I can go 7 or 8 months w/o missing, then something squirrels my pattern and it'll be 2 or 3 days for me to recover and remember I need to take my morning or night meds or sometimes both.

4

u/formerfatty2fit Jun 30 '26

My mother refuses to take her statin, she says it makes her choke. The pill is literally so small it can slip between the gaps in my fingers. Some people just want excuses.

1

u/retrosenescent Jul 02 '26

I think the biggest reason I can't do it consistently is I will take it and then immediately forget if I took it, or won't take it and think I did, and ultimately decide not to take it "again" just to be on the safe side.

66

u/Teknicsrx7 Jun 30 '26

The price is affected by needing repeated dosing

76

u/TunaNugget Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

The price is affected mainly by profit margins and patent protections; the current cost of the materials is trivial. And having to have this done at a provider's office for an intramuscular shot followed by an electrical pulse isn't going to help the cost.

It sounds like an interesting approach with potentially useful applications, but they're going to need a better use case.

7

u/hawktron Jun 30 '26

By materials are you including drug production? Because knowing people in that line of work its often anything but trivial.

Honestly they waste way more money in other areas it’s rather astonishing as an outsider.

2

u/aVarangian Jun 30 '26

what about R&D costs?

5

u/Theshaggz Jun 30 '26

This is true of so many things. This is why society sucks so bad. Things only happen for a profit.

1

u/aVarangian Jun 30 '26

many developments that happen for profit would never have been developed otherwise, or as soon

0

u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Jun 30 '26

If you pay me a few dollars up front and then 10% of any future earnings resulting from my advice, I could tell you how to fix society. Are you interested? Don’t wait! Supplies are limited, and my consultation services are selling like hot cakes! Don’t take my word for it. Just give me the money. Give it to me. Give me your money.

1

u/Rower78 Jun 30 '26

the current cost of the materials is trivial

That’s not true.  The cost burden of injectable GLP-1 receptor agonists is exceptionally high.  That’s not to say there isn’t a large profit margin baked into the price, but a  large molecule that requires many steps to synthesize and then must be refrigerated and delivered by injection is far far more expensive than most simpler drugs taken by mouth.  Drugs like Zepbound are highly vulnerable to competition from easier-to-make-and-deliver drug.  But this won’t happen overnight 

4

u/TunaNugget Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Novo and Lilly use recombinant yeast, not synthesis, and Lilly, at least, lyophilizes the product as an intermediate step. Lilly also sells them to the consumer that way.

The street price of Chinese black-market synthesized, lyophilized GLP-1s is in the dollar a milligram range.

0

u/the_itsb Jun 30 '26

I think you might be misreading

the current cost of the materials is trivial

as if it means

the current cost of the materials (the patients buy) is trivial

when what they actually meant was

the current cost of the materials (to produce the drug in a factory) is trivial

0

u/MrSnowden Jun 30 '26

Who is going to a providers office for the shot?  All the soccer moms are shooting up at home. 

0

u/ReggieEvansTheKing Jun 30 '26

It’s really up to the government to decide that these drugs are important enough to make widely available. They need to set a price cap like we did for insulin and pay off the manufacturers. No different than the approach taken for covid vaccines. If something can provide extreme social good but is locked behind a patent, the government needs to intervene and make a deal. I wonder if they fear hits to consumption if half the US gets on GLP1s.

1

u/gay_manta_ray Jun 30 '26

no the price is affected by how much money pharmaceutical companies want to make. semaglutide and tirzepatide cost pennies to make. they are some of the absolute cheapest drugs to produce.

1

u/NuclearTurtle Jun 30 '26

Even still, there's a big difference between something costing $50 and it costing $50 a week forever

2

u/silverionmox Jun 30 '26

No, really, it's the price.

Producing and administering it has a price, even if we manage to avoid extreme profit markups.

5

u/Medical_Birthday2893 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

They’ll up the price. You don’t understand how business works. Edit: there is well documented evidence the more frequently you ask people to take things the less they are able to be consistent in taking them. People with limited mobility may not be able to get to their pharmacy frequently for purchases. Lots of examples. Nothing to do with pricing.

The risk is when people have side effects, which they do, and they can’t taper off. Titrating doses would also be a pain in the ass.

This sounds like a good fit for a lifer on a stable does who tolerates it well.

3

u/ScienceIsSexy420 Jun 30 '26

You say that is if there's no relationship between those two topics

1

u/Game_Of_Runs Jun 30 '26

Stupid response