US GLP-1 prescriptions passed 9 million a month by the end of 2024, IQVIA says

US prescriptions for GLP-1 medications passed 9 million a month by the end of 2024, up from about 2.5 million a month before October 2022, according to IQVIA, the health-data firm that tracks prescription and sales trends ^[1].

The figures come from an IQVIA analysis published September 23, 2025, that traces how the drug class grew into one of the highest-grossing categories in the industry ^[1]. IQVIA describes the market as led by the semaglutide products Ozempic and Wegovy, both from Novo Nordisk, and the tirzepatide products Mounjaro and Zepbound, both from Eli Lilly ^[1].

IQVIA points to October 2022 as a turning point. That month, four months after Mounjaro's launch, Elon Musk said on Twitter, now X, that taking Wegovy was his secret to looking "fit and healthy" ^[1]. Before that post, GLP-1 prescriptions totaled about 2.5 million a month. Volume more than doubled over the next year and passed 9 million by the end of 2024, IQVIA reported ^[1]. Musk later said in 2024 that he was taking Mounjaro ^[1].

Attention extended beyond one post. Between August 2021 and July 2024, social media mentions of obesity treatment brands surpassed 1.4 million, a 740% increase compared with the prior three years, and searches for obesity as a disease reached 53 million, according to IQVIA ^[1].

Promotional spending rose alongside demand. In the month before Mounjaro's launch, $1.8 billion had been spent promoting GLP-1 drugs; by mid-2025, spending across the class had passed $7 billion ^[1]. IQVIA says Mounjaro is selling around $3 billion a month nearly three years after launch, and that Zepbound is on track to pass that level within a few months ^[1]. IQVIA says Novo Nordisk and Lilly invested heavily in part to compete against unapproved or compounded versions of their products ^[1].

The patient base grew quickly too. As of the second quarter of 2025, 11 million unique patients were using a GLP-1 across indications ^[1]. Before 2022, only 1.8% of patients diagnosed with obesity, about 1.6 million people, had started any anti-obesity treatment. After Mounjaro's 2022 launch, the number of unique patients on GLP-1 therapy rose 200% in 12 months ^[1].

Prescriber ranks expanded faster than for earlier launches. Twelve months after launch, Mounjaro and Zepbound had four times as many unique prescribers as Ozempic and Wegovy did at the same point, IQVIA says. Three years in, Mounjaro reached an average of 9 patients per provider, while Zepbound was prescribed to 7 patients per provider 18 months after launch ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

A wider prescriber base and higher prescription volume mean more clinicians have experience with these drugs, and more pharmacies are handling them. IQVIA's 9 million figure counts prescriptions, while the 11 million figure counts unique patients, so the two numbers measure different things ^[1].

IQVIA says 11 million patients is still a small share of the people diagnosed with obesity, leaving room for the class to grow ^[1]. The analysis does not separate the 9 million monthly prescriptions by diabetes versus obesity use, does not report what patients pay, and does not describe changes in insurance coverage over the period; those details have not been reported ^[1].

For context on scale, IQVIA says Mounjaro and Zepbound, along with the hepatitis C drug Harvoni, are the only launch products ever to surpass $5 billion in sales in their first 12 months ^[1]. It also notes that over the last six years, only 7% of new products reached $100 million in cumulative gross sales within their first year ^[1].

The analysis was published in September 2025 and does not forecast prescription volumes beyond the periods it covers ^[1].