Gerrit Marais Quoted in the Benefits and Pensions Monitor on the rising costs of GLP-1 drugs for group benefit plans

Extract

Gerrit Marais, benefits consultant at PBI Actuarial, also emphasized that it’s not just the sticker price but the volume of claims that’s impacting budgets.

“It’s not really a high-cost drug; it’s more the mid-range,” he said. “But definitely something that’s actively on the rise and that plan sponsors need to take note of.”

Beyond GLP-1s, costs for biologics treating autoimmune conditions, certain cancer therapies, fertility treatments, and mental health medications are also climbing. While Ricci highlighted the continued pressure from biologics for inflammatory diseases and ADHD treatments, Marais agreed, noting a structural issue with chronic disease management in an aging population.

“There’s an increase in prevalence of chronic conditions,” he said. “These drugs treat two of the most prevalent: diabetes and obesity.”

Please click on the link to view the post as published on the Benefits & Pensions Monitor website: An increase of fifty per cent’, how GLP-1s are restructuring benefits strategies