Study: Bariatric surgery more cost effective than GLP-1s

Editor's Note

Combining newer weight loss drugs with bariatric surgery is the most cost-effective long-term strategy for treating obesity, according to research presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2024.

Medical Xpress reported on the findings October 18. According to the article, researchers from Northwestern Medicine evaluated the cost-effectiveness of GLP-1 RA therapy, bariatric surgery alone (gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy), and a combination of surgery with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) such as liraglutide (Saxenda) and semaglutide (Wegovy). The analysis projected costs for thousands of patients over a lifespan of up to 50 years, using data from various U.S. clinical trials. Treatments were considered cost-effective if they achieved a cost per QALY below $100,000.

Findings indicate that drugs are effective for weight loss, bariatric surgery offers more value when considering cost and quality-adjusted life years (QALY), the outlet reports. Bariatric surgery costs ranged from $17,400 to $22,850, compared to annual costs of $9,360 to $16,200 for GLP-1 RA. However, surgery alone provided approximately two additional QALYs and saved over $9,000 per QALY relative to medication alone. Combining GLP-1 RA with surgery resulted in the greatest benefit, adding over five QALYs and saving more than $7,200 per QALY compared to surgery alone.

The full report offers additional context about how use of the GLP-1 RAs as a lifelong treatment affects costs as well as a separate study on considerations for preoperative use of GLP-1 RAs.