As access to GLP-1 medications widens across the United States, pharmacies are emerging as one of the most important pillars of long-term treatment success.
Medicare’s expansion of GLP-1 access, including pathways toward $50 monthly treatment costs for eligible patients, marks a significant step forward in affordability for millions of Americans.
According to JP Morgan, approximately 10 million Americans were on GLP-1 treatment in 2025, a sharp rise from around 6 million in 2024 and 5 million in 2023.
But growing utilisation does not automatically translate into better health outcomes, and healthcare systems are now grappling with how to sustain that momentum.
Patients frequently discontinue GLP-1 therapy due to side effects, lack of clinical follow-up, or a perception that the treatment is only a short-term fix rather than a long-term commitment.
Discontinuation rates are striking, with roughly 4 in 10 patients stopping treatment within 12 months and nearly 6 in 10 dropping off by the 24-month mark, despite many later restarting.
Common barriers to persistence include tolerability issues, supply disruptions, prior authorisation delays, and insufficient ongoing support from healthcare providers.
Joy Neely, Chief Growth Officer at RedSail Technologies, argues that pharmacists are positioned to directly address many of these barriers at the point of patient contact.
Pharmacists can normalise self-injection, counsel on dose escalation, and manage side effects using scalable educational resources, including alternatives such as oral GLP-1 options.
When a patient indicates they stopped treatment because of side effects, the pharmacist can share educational materials or encourage follow-up with the prescribing provider before a lapse becomes permanent.
Technology is increasingly central to making this kind of personalised engagement scalable across a growing and diverse patient population.
Real-time adherence monitoring and in-workflow alerts enable targeted outreach when refill gaps emerge, prompting counselling or provider referral before treatment discontinuation takes hold.
Pharmacists cannot manually monitor every patient as GLP-1 use continues to grow, but digital tools allow them to direct attention where it matters most and intervene at the right moments.
The broader ambition is ensuring that expanded access to GLP-1 therapies, driven by affordability initiatives from bodies such as CMS, actually delivers durable cardiometabolic and weight outcomes rather than short-lived engagement.
Tech-enabled pharmacies reflect the reality of the GLP-1 landscape: patient success depends on more than a prescription, and sustained engagement cannot be treated as an afterthought.