Why are fewer Black Americans getting GLP-1s?

GLP-1s have become the newest celebrity miracle drug, with famous athletes like Serena Williams and Charles Barkley sharing that they’ve used it for weight loss. Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have become a status symbol. But before they were famous, GLP-1s were developed to treat Type 2 diabetes, a disease that occurs when a person’s blood sugar becomes too high. It affects nearly 40 million Americans and hits Black Americans especially hard. According to the CDC, about 12 percent of Black adults have diabetes, compared with roughly 7 percent of white adults. Yet when researchers reviewed 26 studies from across the country, they found that Black patients were about 20 percent less likely than white patients to be prescribed newer diabetes drugs. That gap has deep roots. A century ago, doctors called diabetes a “luxury disease” of wealthy white and Jewish people, and many didn’t believe Black people could get the disease at all.

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