Always in combination with lifestyle
The medicine liraglutide (Saxenda®) will be reimbursed from 1 April 2022 from the basic insurance. The drug is available to a small group of people, and under strict conditions. Saxenda is the first drug for the treatment of obesity to be reimbursed. Treatment with liraglutide costs about 2600 euros per patient per year.
Join GLI
The compensation is subject to three conditions. The first is that you must have a BMI of 35 or higher. For people with a BMI between 35 and 40, they must also have cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea or osteoarthritis as an additional disease. people with type 2 diabetes are not eligible. For them, liraglutide had already been reimbursed for some time (the diabetes medicine that is marketed under the name Victoza®). The second condition is that you must participate in the Combined Lifestyle Intervention (GLI). Furthermore, people should not be eligible for bariatric surgery.
Trial period
The drug does not work for everyone. That is why an additional requirement has been included that body weight must have decreased by at least 5 percent within 3 months. For example, if you weigh 120 kilos at the start, you must have lost at least 6 kilos after 3 months. If you have lost weight less, then the medicine is not effective enough for you and it will be discontinued. The use of Saxenda can cause side effects, especially nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation. These side effects usually disappear after some time.
How does liraglutide work?
Liraglutide must be injected under the skin daily. The drug has the same effect as GLP-1, a “satiety hormone”. This hormone is produced in the small intestine after eating a meal and it causes your appetite and hunger pangs to decrease.
More new anti-obesity drugs
The National Health Care Institute will also issue advice before the summer of 2022 on two other medicines for the treatment of obesity. These are naltrexone in combination with bupropion (Mysimba®) for people with a BMI of 27 or higher, and setmelanotide (Imcivree®), for people with a rare hereditary form of obesity.
Want to know more about obesity? Listen to this episode of Healthy Conversation about the causes of overweight and obesityor to this podcast episode about the Combined Lifestyle Intervention†
