Weight loss company WeightWatchers launched a telehealth service on Thursday, joining a crowded list of virtual care providers that are prescribing glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist medications.
The service, called WeightWatchers Clinic, will use clinicians previously employed by Sequence, the telehealth weight loss provider it acquired in March. Clinicians employed by WeightWatchers will prescribe certain patients GLP-1 medications such as Wegovy and Munjaro. They will also prescribe other weight loss drugs for patients not interested or ineligible for GLP-1 medications.
Read more: Traditional weight loss docs wary of ‘drive-through GLP-1 providers
Existing Sequence members will eventually transition to WeightWatchers Clinic but a timeline has not been specified. New members will start on the WeightWatchers Clinic program, which will be embedded in the weight loss company's app.
WeightWatchers also launched a GLP-1 behavioral program Thursday for people on the medications regardless of who prescribed them. The behavioral program is not based on points, unlike the company’s traditional weight loss program, but instead will focus on ensuring patients taking GLP-1 prescriptions have adequate nutrition, hydration and physical activity.
“It's a reasonable expectation that the number of people on [weight loss] medication over the next five years will significantly increase over time,” said Gary Foster, WeightWatchers’s chief scientific officer, during a briefing with the press. “That will be both people who get their medications from us [at] the WeightWatchers Clinic or medications from their primary care physician, their endocrinologist or some other specialist.”
WeightWatchers said its clinic will provide patients with care coordinators to help facilitate insurance coverage, connect with registered dietitians and offer fitness support. WeightWatchers said patients will be able able to speak with board-certified clinicians, who will prescribe the medications.
The GLP-1 behavioral program is included in the $99 per month subscription for all WeightWatchers Clinic patients.
Soaring popularity of GLP-1s, such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic, has led to a growing number of weight loss entrants in the virtual health industry. In the last year, digital health companies such as Teladoc and Noom have launched virtual weight loss businesses with GLP-1 medication prescription offerings.
But shortages of these drugs along with cautious insurers not willing to cover them have hampered some of these companies' efforts in the space. The increased number of virtual weight loss companies also has some traditional clinicians worried about the types of care being offered to patients via these platforms.
