What happens when Ozempic takes over your town

Good health

It’s not LA, but Bowling Green, Kentucky, which has one of the highest rates of weight loss drug prescriptions. And there is a reason

If only 10 percent of the US population could take weight loss drugs, it would have a huge impact on the economy. Goldman Sachs estimated that even that small amount could increase America’s GDP by 0.4 percent, as people live longer, healthier lives.

To test that hypothesis, we decided to look for a city or town in the US that has the most Ozempic and similar drugs, and spend time there to make changes though which ones. Given how popular weight loss pills have become, we thought we could at least start seeing the economic and other effects by now.

We wanted to find an area that had a high concentration of shooters, so we could see how it changed the character of the community. That’s how we ended up in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and its surrounding area, which is about 30 minutes north of Tennessee. There, at least 4 percent of people have a prescription for a weight-loss drug, which is one of the highest rates in the entire country for an urban center. (And that’s probably a conservative estimate.)

We identified Bowling Green using prescription data provided by PurpleLab Inc., a health technology company. By comparing the number of people with prescriptions and the size of the population, we were able to find a demand indicator and a proxy for consumption. That way we can better see the impact that medicines have on the local economy and health system.

Although there are early media reports suggesting that iconic areas such as Hollywood or the Upper East Side are Ozempic hot spots, those areas did not stand out in our analysis. Looking at states, Kentucky had the highest rate of prescriptions for the following drugs: Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic, Wegovy or Rybelsus or Eli Lilly & Co.’ s Loaded or Zepbound. (Although some of them are diabetes treatments, they are often prescribed for their weight-loss effects.) About 1 in 15 Kentuckians — or 6.8 percent percent – have prescriptions for one of these treatments. Alabama came in a close second, followed by West Virginia, Mississippi and Georgia.

To narrow our focus even further, we analyzed the prescription values ​​more precisely. Although a few rural areas in Kentucky had the highest rates, we wanted to find an area with a high population density to better examine how drugs are changing communities. Among those areas, Bowling Green had the highest prescription drug rate in all of Kentucky.

When we first visited there, it quickly became clear that drugs were already there. Brittany Feltner, who works at a rehab center in town, said she wasn’t the only one taking the weight-loss drug, but so were a bunch of her co-workers.

“There were a lot of people at my work who were doing Ozempic and Mounjaro,” Feltner told Bloomberg in early May. That’s how he first heard about drugs. “There’s a girl I work with, she lost 90 pounds,” he said.

During their visit, Bloomberg reporters found that Bowling Green has changed. Not all of the most delicious predictions came true: For once, the dining scene is as solid as ever. But some parts of the local economy and health system have begun to see changes. The city provides an opportunity to find out what is happening in cities across the US – or what is coming soon – as drugs become more widespread.

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