GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy are making headlines for weight loss, but their potential impact goes far beyond the numbers on a scale. Could these drugs reshape health care spending, insurance coverage, longevity, and even the assumptions actuaries use to model risk? In this episode of Actuary Voices, Contingencies Editor-in-Chief Preeti Vasishtha speaks with Dr. Kimberly Ferrero, the American Academy of Actuaries&#x27; Assistant Director of Research. Drawing on her background in cardiovascular and metabolic disease research, Dr. Ferrero explores the science behind GLP-1 therapies, the promises and uncertainties surrounding their long-term effects, and why actuaries are watching their rapid adoption so closely. The conversation examines affordability, insurer costs, mortality assumptions, patient behavior, health equity, and the question at the center of today&#x27;s debate: Will the impressive results seen in clinical trials translate into lasting improvements at the population level? Additional Resources: Read Dr. Ferrero&#x27;s article: How GLP-1 Drugs Are Shaping Care, Cost, and Coverage. Learn More About How Weightloss Drugs Effect Health care Costs in the Drivers of 2026 Premium Changes issue brief. Read Sam Gutterman&#x27;s Last Word article on Weightloss Drugs, Weight and See?

GLP-1s Explained: Beyond the Weightloss with Dr. Kimberly Ferrero

Actuary Voices

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Actuary Voices

## Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome to the Actuary Voices podcast. I am Preeti Vishisht, Editor-in-Chief of Contingencies magazine, and I'll be hosting today's episode. I'm really excited today because I'm joined by Dr. Kimberly Ferrero, the Academy's Assistant Director of Research. She's the author of the article, How GLP-1 Drugs Are Shaping Care, Cost and Coverage.

This article appears in the upcoming July-August issue of Contingencies, and we are going to be talking to Kim about the article and more. Kim, welcome. Thanks for having me on, Preeti. Thank you. We're excited to talk about your article, like I mentioned. So tell us about your work on GLP-1 medications prior to joining the Academy. So my academic background is in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

And for my PhD and my postdoctoral fellowship research, I was studying how obesity, diabetes, and insulin resistance contribute to the development of heart failure. And a significant part of my work involved off-label repurposing of FDA-approved drugs such as SGLT2 inhibitors, which are another newer class of diabetes medications that showed a lot of promise across multiple disease models. And so a decade of those experiences shaped how I thought about GLP-1 medications when they came on the market.

And from a scientific standpoint, these drugs are really interesting, not only because they produce weight loss, but because they target broader metabolic pathways that are tied to chronic disease risk. So when I joined the Academy, I was already very interested in how therapies like GLP-1 receptor agonists could influence population health and long-term risk patterns. You know, I love pharmacological research because in repurposing a medication, you can save time and money in an R&D pipeline as well as potentially increase access to effective treatments for patients.

And what makes this, I think, especially fascinating from the perspective of actuaries is that we're watching a medical innovation move very quickly from clinical medicine into these big questions about insurance coverage, utilization, mortality assumptions, and our long-term cost projections. We could not have gotten a better author for this article given your background, Kimberly, in this extensive background. So one thing that I've noticed is that some people look at GLP-1 medications just as the latest weight loss trend.

Why is the story much bigger than this just being a weight loss trend? Oh, yes. And there are some pretty fancy, shiny commercials out right now for a whole host of GLP-1 medications. But in my opinion, the story is really much bigger than that because these drugs are increasingly being viewed as metabolic, eometabolic, or what we might call whole body therapies rather than a cosmetic weight loss treatment. And so the weight loss gets the headlines.

Clinically, what has doctors and now insurers paying attention are the downstream effects. So on diabe...

GLP-1s Explained: Beyond the Weightloss with Dr. Kimberly Ferrero

Transcript

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GLP-1s Explained: Beyond the Weightloss with Dr. Kimberly Ferrero

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.