The Pharmacist’s Role in Counseling Patients on GLP-1 Medications

Amid a noticeable increase in the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications—namely to treat people with obesity and related comorbidities—it’s crucial for pharmacists to play a significant role in managing patients’ GLP-1 regimens.

“When anything new comes out, at first, there are some people that really jump on board and want to try it and then others who have some hesitancy,” said Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, BC-ADM, CDCES, Endocrine Clinical Pharmacy Specialist with Cleveland Clinic Endocrinology & Metabolism Institute. “You hear sometimes people are very worried about the safety and the side effects, but the reality is we have 20 years now of use and data, and so we are seeing an increase in use.”

Indeed, GLP-1s have been approved since the early 2000s and have been mainly used to treat patients with diabetes, historically showing significant declines in their A_1c levels. Many clinical pharmacists have been well aware of the positive GLP-1 effects for quite some time. However, with its continued success in treating obesity and a notable increase in marketing, this medication class has boomed in recent years, even leading to a drug shortage.

“I still remember back in 2005 when the first [GLP-1] was approved,” continued Isaacs. “At the time, that was just for type 2 diabetes. It’s been so exciting to see it evolve. Through all of these years—it’s been 20 years—we’ve seen how this medication class now has all of these other indications.”

In the most recent episode of Over the Counter, Isaacs joined Drug Topics to explore this evolution within the GLP-1 space. She discussed pharmacists’ role in counseling patients on GLP-1s as well as the common trends, challenges, and successes she’s seen among the patient population Isaacs typically serves.

Stay tuned for weekly podcast episodes on Over the Counter every Thursday afternoon. Check out our previous episode with Don Roosan, PharmD, PhD, an expert on artificial intelligence in pharmacy practice. He sat down with Drug Topics to discuss AI’s potential role in medication therapy management and how pharmacists will be forced to navigate this technology as it becomes commonplace in health care.

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