Tirzepatide rapidly captured significant market share for both diabetes and weight management within 18 months of approval.
40.6%Share of weight-loss medication dispensations captured by tirzepatide by December 2023
What the researchers found
Tirzepatide reached 12.3% of diabetes medication dispensations and 40.6% of weight-loss medication dispensations within about 18 months of market entry.
Why it matters
Understanding prescribing trends helps gauge real-world adoption of new therapies and reveals how the treatment landscape for diabetes and obesity is shifting toward incretin-based medications.
The numbers in context
- Tirzepatide reached 12.3% of all diabetes drug prescriptions by December 2023
- Among weight-loss drugs, tirzepatide went from 0% to 40.6% of prescriptions in 18 months
- Semaglutide 2.4 mg (Wegovy) grew from 0% to 32.2% in the same period
- GLP-1 RAs overall grew from 19.5% to 28.5% of diabetes drug prescriptions
- SGLT2 inhibitors grew from 14.5% to 24.4%
How the study worked
Population-based cohort study analyzing commercial insurance claims data from a large U.S. database covering January 2021 to December 2023.
Who was studied
U.S. adults aged 18+ with commercial health insurance, with and without type 2 diabetes, who received diabetes or weight-loss drug prescriptions (2021-2023).
What this study cannot tell us
Based on commercial insurance claims only, excluding uninsured and government-insured populations. Cannot assess clinical outcomes or reasons for prescribing choices.
How to read the evidence
Large population-based observational study using insurance claims. Strong for trend analysis but cannot establish causation or clinical outcomes.
When this study was published
Published in 2025 using data through December 2023.
The bigger picture
The rapid uptake of tirzepatide and other incretin therapies signals a paradigm shift in how diabetes and obesity are treated, moving away from older drug classes toward peptide-based dual-receptor agonists.
Questions still open
- Will tirzepatide adoption continue to accelerate or plateau?
- How does access differ for uninsured or publicly insured patients?
- What clinical outcomes result from this prescribing shift?
Common questions
How quickly did tirzepatide become popular?
Did older diabetes medications decline?
Read the original research
Trends in Utilization of Glucose- and Weight-Lowering Medications After Tirzepatide Approval in the United States : A Population-Based Cohort Study.
Annals of internal medicine, 178(5), 620-633
Citation
Ostrominski, John W; Ortega-Montiel, Janinne; Tesfaye, Helen; Alix, Caroline; DiCesare, Elyse; Cromer, Sara J; Wexler, Deborah J; Paik, Julie M; Patorno, Elisabetta. (2025). Trends in Utilization of Glucose- and Weight-Lowering Medications After Tirzepatide Approval in the United States : A Population-Based Cohort Study.. Annals of internal medicine, 178(5), 620-633. https://doi.org/10.7326/ANNALS-24-02870