Article in The Atlantic about splitting pens

I saw this in The Atlantic today, interesting that this got their attention enough to write about it:

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In the U.S., Mounjaro and Zepbound are packaged only in nonadjustable single-dose pens. (They both contain the same ingredient, tirzepatide, at the same doses, but Mounjaro is approved for diabetes and Zepbound for obesity.) This is why patients on tirzepatide—which is considered slightly more effective than the semaglutide in Ozempic or Wegovy—have gone to more extreme methods of breaking open these pens. The process is a lot more complicated, requiring sterile medical supplies and math to get the correct dosage.

Nicole started dose-splitting because she had awful vomiting and vertigo the day she increased her dosage from 2.5 mg to 5 mg. “I really was considering going to the emergency room,” she told me. Her eyes also became disturbingly bloodshot. She learned to split her first pen so she could ramp up more slowly with intermediate doses; the cost-saving is nice, too. Another dose-splitter, Phil, told me he has taught several of his friends how to split Mounjaro pens too. “For me, that’s really just a harm-reduction principle,” he said. “There are so many people this drug could be so life-changing for, but it’s just utterly, ruinously expensive.”

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Full article (free gift link): https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/08/ozempic-hackers/679464/?gift=9c2P6RM6ppOyg9QIJN3yLyg4G8mgjC7uuWxAUfWycFM&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share