Despite the hype about weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s, serious questions have remained about their efficacy when patients wean off the drugs.
To date, studies have cast doubt on whether patients who stop taking the drugs can keep off the weight long-term. Some data suggest that those who discontinue regain between 14% and two-thirds of what they lost.
But Omada Health, a virtual chronic care provider, is challenging the notion of inevitable weight gain with new data.
When coupled with wraparound lifestyle support, 63% of Omada members maintained or continued to lose weight 12 months after discontinuing GLP-1s. At one year post-discontinuation, members showed just 0.8% average weight change. The analysis was based on 816 patients.
“Because [GLP-1s] don’t alone create any sustainable, durable behavioral patterns, our viewpoint is that the way to maximize the pros of the meds and reduce the cons is to have a high-quality, evidence-based lifestyle intervention alongside,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy told Fierce Healthcare.
Omada, which supports obesity, hypertension, diabetes and MSK, launched its GLP-1 Care Track in 2023 in response to client requests. It has since supported more than 100,000 members taking GLP-1s. Omada’s patient preference data indicate it is common for patients to want to hit a weight goal and then stop taking GLP-1s, per Duffy. To do so, patients need to train for that like they would for a marathon. To that end, its program focuses on muscle maintenance, nutrition optimization and cognitive exercises to reinforce successful habits.
As part of its offering, Omada works with two of the Big Three pharmacy benefit managers: Express Scripts and CVS Caremark. This allows employers to seamlessly pair Omada’s solution with the medications, per Duffy. Omada works with 2,000 employers and plans today.
Duffy expects the latest finding to be a crucial selling point of the GLP-1 Care Track program, which is seeing strong growth. The company has added 71% more members than in the first half of 2024. Down the line, Duffy predicts that among payers who do cover GLP-1s, it will become default to also offer a solution like Omada’s alongside.
“I think that’s where the world is rapidly heading, just because it’s so clear and obvious and definitive that with nothing, regain is the path,” Duffy said.
Duffy got the idea for Omada while in med school. “Too much of the existing healthcare system and care that was being offered was being done in that doctor’s visit,” Duffy noted. “A visit every six months doesn’t work for many disease categories, especially metabolic disease.” That is why he calls Omada a “between-visit provider,” supporting patients daily. Omada ties remote monitoring devices with coaching and AI to help consumers control their chronic diseases.
Omada’s GLP-1 Care Track is a major growth driver for the company as it aims to reach profitability. The digital health company went public in early June at a valuation of $1.1 billion.
In its first public earnings call after its IPO, Omada reported $61 million in revenue, up 49% year over year. The company has added 52% more members since the second quarter of 2024 for a total of 752,000 members.
Wei-Li Shao, president of Omada, told Fierce Healthcare in a post-earnings interview that the majority of the 49% top-line growth this quarter came from growth in Omada’s standard cardiometabolic programs. Shao said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again campaign and the popularity of GLP-1s for weight loss have increased buyers’ awareness and interest in Omada’s core offerings.
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