Employer Strategies for Maximizing the Promise of GLP-1s

The numbers are clear: 160 million adults in the U.S. want to improve their health and well-being through weight loss. As many employers already know, adding obesity management programs to health benefit plans can boost employee motivation and health outcomes. For those who are affected, reducing weight by just 5-10% can improve risk factors and reduce medical complications. These targeted programs also acknowledge that obesity is a complex, chronic disease and it deserves dedicated and comprehensive care.

Early trials have suggested GLP-1s are the most effective anti-obesity medications the medical community has ever had: Studies have shown that weight losses of up to 10-15% are possible. With last year’s approval of tirzepatide for obesity, the combined power of a GLP-1 with another gut hormone enhancer (GIP) has shown even more promise with losses of up to an astounding 48 pounds or 21% of body weight at 88 weeks vs. placebo in one study. As a result, GLP-1 demand has skyrocketed, with half of U.S. adults who have heard of these weight loss medications interested in trying them. And as GLP-1s are proving beneficial in other disorders including cardiovascular disease, demand is likely to continue to increase.

The Challenge

GLP-1s are an important new tool for weight loss–but as with any tool, they have their limitations. Even with their power, it is clear that medication alone is not enough: When people stop taking the medication, studies show the weight comes back.

To help reduce the setbacks so many people encounter on GLP-1s, and to ensure your employees are set up for weight management success, any obesity management program offered to your employees should include a comprehensive approach that includes  pairing medication with substantial, long-lasting lifestyle changes. The cornerstones of healthy behaviors like nutrition, exercise, stress management, and sleep are all essential to achieve outcomes. Drugs alone can’t rewire the brain’s craving pathways, or fix insulin resistance. For GLP-1s and other anti-obesity medications to be most effective, it is abundantly clear that they need to be part of a personalized program that reflects the person’s unique biology, lifestyle, and importantly, personal preferences for ongoing engagement and motivation.

Noom Med is our way of delivering on this mandate—it is our cutting-edge obesity treatment program that combines clinical care and medications with psychology-based behavior change, integrating evidence-based obesity medicine, specially trained clinicians, and our award-winning app that has been proven to work for millions of people.

Noom’s Edge as a Companion App

GLP-1s are a novel class of pharmaceuticals that demand a specialized companion app. The reason why is so easy to see: current data suggest that many if not most people currently taking a GLP-1 will not be on it forever. 

At Noom, we know that many employees  will receive GLP-1s and other anti-obesity medications through their doctor or another source. We have a rich history in providing companion app support to users facing serious health issues: Long before Noom Med existed, we partnered with Novo Nordisk to provide companion app support for Saxenda users, with impressive results. We were also the first CDC-approved app-based Diabetes Prevention Program, which has helped many reduce their risk factors for diabetes and related comorbidities.

Noom’s ability to create lasting lifestyle changes along with metabolic health improvements has been shown in over 50 published peer-reviewed studies. In fact, one study showed that Noom combined with an early GLP-1 produced far better weight loss outcomes than the GLP-1 alone. This was surprising and unusual, as in general the lifestyle arm of anti-obesity medication trials vastly underperforms the drug. 

Our Mission to Expand Access to Quality Obesity Care 

While GLP-1 medicines have the capability to do so much in our fight against this growing epidemic, we anticipate that they will also trigger a big wave of cost increases for employers, payors, and our entire health system. We designed Noom’s metabolic health offerings to help employers manage this cost-access challenge by tailoring our award-winning behavior change approach for individuals looking to achieve sustainable weight loss and reduce long-term medication dependency.

This deft pairing of biology with psychology is what enables Noom Med to deliver holistic care to members: Clinicians review detailed patient background information along with labs to evaluate each member’s metabolic needs and to develop a care plan (which may or may not include GLP-1s). This clinical care intersects with our unique combination of one-to-one human coaching and AI-powered learnings to deliver unmatched efficacy and accountability to each member.

With this approach, we currently find that approximately 45 percent of Noom Med users will be prescribed a GLP-1 medication. More importantly, we estimate that 80 percent of these individuals will be able to successfully off-ramp from use of such GLP-1 medications by actively participating in Noom Med. Noom Med’s power of metabolic optimization anchored in behavior change reduces the likelihood of GLP-1s becoming costly forever drugs.

¹ Internal Noom analysis.

It is also important to underscore that while GLP-1s have been undisputedly impactful, not all obesity is the same—and not everyone with a high body mass index (BMI) needs medication. Just like any disease, obesity has many underlying causes and contributing factors. Quality care can include a number of medications and behavior change interventions.

Living the Noom Mission

We are proud to be a leader in digital obesity care support, no matter how your populations utilize our services: For those who receive GLP-1s through Noom, Noom Med provides holistic support and continuity of care. For those employees who qualify for GLP-1s elsewhere, Noom serves as an essential  companion to help with medication adherence while preventing  muscle loss and fostering healthy habits to produce better and more sustainable weight-loss outcomes.

At Noom, our mission is to empower everyone, everywhere to live a better, healthier life. As a platform that provides crucial services to an at-risk population in need of true support with evidence-based tools, Noom Med’s GLP-1 support tools are the perfect tangible expression of that mission.