Overview
- At a DGE event on Tuesday, Hamburg endocrinologist Martin Merkel urged a legal change to allow statutory insurance to cover GLP‑1 weight‑loss injections, citing a widening social gap in access.
- Current practice generally reimburses these drugs only for diabetes patients with a body-mass index above 27, according to reporting.
- The Federal Criminal Police Office reported growing attempts to obtain the prescription injections illegally, including through forged prescriptions.
- Clinicians report large differences in effectiveness, with some patients seeing little benefit and others achieving weight loss comparable to gastric bypass surgery.
- Doctors warn about side effects and frequent weight regain after stopping, recommend medical supervision with lifestyle changes, and note there is no established exit strategy as pharmacologists stress differences in drug mechanisms and potency.