Alan Zellner admittedly expressed some concerns about taking an unfamiliar medication.
However, faced with rising blood pressure and an expanding waistline, the 76-year-old Wilkes-Barre resident followed the advice of his doctors and began taking Ozempic to drop some pounds.
A former standout wrestler and later coach at Wilkes University, Zellner’s weight ballooned to 360 pounds following his retirement.
Zellner started taking the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist about three years ago and witnessed his weight drop to 212 pounds when he stepped on the scale Wednesday. He described the medicine as a “very small part” of his weight loss journey and program.
“Changing my lifestyle, changing my diet and planning meals, and getting more exercise by walking the dog four times a day — all those things went into losing 150 pounds,” Zellner said.
GLP-1 agonists — a class of medications used to treat Type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity — lower serum glucose levels and manage metabolism in patients, according to the National Library of Medicine. Originally developed for the management of Type 2 diabetes, GLP-1s emerged as a highly effective treatment for obesity.
Interest in GLP-1-based prescriptions for people without diabetes rose an estimated 700% from 2019 to 2023, raising concerns about side effects, long-term outcomes and unregulated products, NLM officials said.
Locally, Tom DePietro, owner of DePietro’s Pharmacy in Dunmore, observed a 220% increase of GLP-1 prescriptions for weight loss from January to August.
“Patients finally have access to a solution for a problem in such demand and then you couple it with the fact that now you have somewhat of an affordable pathway to a medication that’s highly effective to treat or assist the treatment of the disease,” he said. “Medicare patients typically never had access to weight-loss medications. Starting in July, Medicare launched a GLP bridge program which gave patients on Medicare Part D for drug plans an option to become covered if they met weight guidelines and/or other conditions. Since July, we’ve seen about 100 patients access that program.
“I think the demand is going to continue to increase. That program alone will cause a tremendous increase of growth. If the patients qualify, they pay $50 per month so even our Medicare senior patients find that affordable. Typically, it’s over $1,300 a month.”
Pharmaceutical manufacturers also realized many insurance companies won’t cover the drugs so they’ve launched very competitive, monthly co-pay offerings for consumers to buy it out-of-pocket, DePietro said.
“We’re seeing patients pay anywhere from $140 to $499 a month, out of pocket,” he said. “Their argument was if I could afford it, and my healthcare is not covering it, and it’s going to add years to my life, decrease my blood pressure and help my overall day-to-day (health), I think people look at the cost of medications now differently, especially for this type of condition. A lot of people want to lose weight and tried very hard, and now they’re seeing other people have the results, which I think is leading to this year-over-year increase in demand.”
Wegovy and Zepbound are the two main GLP-1 medications on the market, and the introduction of a tablet version of Wegovy spurred even more interest in the medication, DePietro said.
“It helped increase the demand for GLPs because a subset of patients were unwilling to inject a needle,” he said. “When that tablet was launched, those people kind of came off the sideline.”
DePietro noted Ozempic and Wegovy are exactly the same drug, but there is a different name on the box.
“One box is for diabetics and one box is for weight loss,” he said. “The Ozempic box is intended to be used by patients whose doctor said they have diabetes. The other box was intended for people who said they want to lose weight. Early on, people realized the diabetic drug was causing weight loss. They had access to Ozempic and that’s what really caused the craze of, ‘This medication that treats diabetes is also causing tremendous weight loss, we should make a box and call it something else and sell it for weight loss.’ ”
Additionally, Mounjaro and Zepbound are also the same medication with two different names on the boxes — one for diabetes (Mounjaro) and one for weight loss, DePietro said.
“Those four products are dominating the market,” he said.
Dr. Christopher Still, director of Geisinger’s Center for Obesity and Metabolic Research, said the GLP medications serve many purposes.
“The GLP-1s really transformed not only obesity treatment, but cardiometabolic care,” he said. “They’ve been shown to be decreasing cardiovascular risk; it’s indicated now for fatty liver disease and obstructive sleep apnea. There have been studies looking at really any chronic disease of inflammation like psoriasis and asthma, and even substance use disorders. It’s really been a game changer for cardiometabolic disease overall.”
The GLP-1s have also proven to be more effective for weight loss than previous drugs, Still added.
“They’re safe and effective and before the injectables, the GLP-1s, if you look historically at anti-obesity medication, the average weight loss was about 5 to 7, maybe 8% weight loss,” he said. “Now, with the newer medications, we’re getting 21% to 22% weight loss and even more in the newer medications that are coming out in the near future. There’s probably 15 medications in development so I would bet, in the next three to five years, you’re going to see a significant increase in the number of medications in the cardiometabolic space.”
Most side effects from GLP-1 medications are related to the gastrointestinal tract — nausea, constipation, abdominal discomfort, increase in reflux, Still said.
“One important point about these medications is they’re very effective, but you need to be on them long term,” he said. “If you look at any of the studies, when you stop the medication abruptly, two-thirds of patients will gain back their weight within one year and it’s really no fault of the patient.”
Maintaining a high-quality diet featuring ample protein, fruits and vegetables, and getting proper exercise, including resistance training, are also important when taking the GLP medications, Still said.
With many insurances not covering the medications, Still also fears consumers will try to acquire them from compounding pharmacies, which are not regulated by the FDA.
“It’s a big concern because we just don’t know what the active ingredient is in those medications,” he said.
Alan Zellner of Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Alan Zellner of Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Alan Zellner of Wilkes-Barre speaks on his experience with Ozempic on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Pharmacist Sarah Ferry holds up A package of GLP-1 medication at DePietro’s Pharmacy in Dunmore Thursday, September 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Pharmacist Sarah Ferry holds up A package of GLP-1 medication at DePietro’s Pharmacy in Dunmore Thursday, September 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
GLP-1 medication is shown on the counter at DePietro’s Pharmacy in Dunmore Thursday, September 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Pharmacist Sarah Ferry holds up packages of the GLP-1 medication at DePietro’s Pharmacy in Dunmore Thursday, September 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
This photograph taken on February 23, 2023, in Paris, shows the anti-diabetic medication Ozempic, made by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. (Joel Saget/GETTY IMAGES EUROPE/TNS)
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Alan Zellner of Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Dr. Essam Almeky, a primary care physician and director of the medical weight loss program at Commonwealth Health in Kingston, emphasized that GLP-1 medications alone won’t help patients lose weight, but they can be an effective tool in the process.
“I have patients that come here and ask for magic, basically,” he said. “I tell them I don’t have magic, but you do. If the patient follows the diet plan I give them and the muscle exercises, I have great results. But by itself, it doesn’t work. I have patients who took the shot and didn’t lose any weight. They would just eat their way around it and then they complain about nausea because if you overeat, you have more nausea with these medications. Then they ask for nausea medication, and we get into a vicious circle with that.”
The medications can also decrease heart diseases and stroke by 30%, Almeky said.
For patients looking to lose large amounts of weight, Almeky typically starts them on other medications before transitioning to the GLP-1s.
“Once you reach the highest dose, you’re done with weight loss with the GLP-1,” he said. “They think it’s going to work forever and they’re going to keep losing the weight. It doesn’t work like that. I have a lot of success when we taper them down. When they taper down with a practitioner to help with the calories and all of that, then they do very well and keep the weight off.”
Microdosing — staying on the lowest dose forever or for years after — is also a common practice, Almeky said
“Staying with the low dose will actually help them build their new lifestyle,” he said. “It keeps them in check. In the studies, it shows that GLP-1s help with maintenance of the weight loss.”
Zellner relied on his sports background to craft a weight-loss plan, including keeping a written log of all his meals and including his entire family in the process.
“I went on one of my wrestling diets that I used to recommend to my team,” he said. “I started to lose weight and then Dr. Almeky thought it would be a little bit faster if I started taking this medicine. Initially, he asked me to take a .25-milligram dose and then moved up to the .5 dose. Then, after six weeks, I went up to the 1.0 dose and that was making me sick. I was nauseous, my heart rate was high and my blood pressure went low, so we cut back to the .5 and I’ve basically been fine since then. I was not a big fan of it but his nephew wrestled for me, so I started to take the medicine as a favor.”
While Zellner remains on a .5-milligram dose of Ozempic, he firmly believes lifestyle choices play a bigger role in keeping the weight off.
“It’s more with doing the exercise, planning your meals and increasing your water intake,” he said. “After I retired from coaching, my schedule kind of went all over. I was eating whenever I got a chance and eating late at night. When (Almeky) said I needed to lose weight, I knew I needed to get back on a legitimate schedule. I needed to cut the junk food and stop eating at the fast-food places. That discipline is the most important.”
Zellner feels the GLP-1 medication, in conjunction with a healthy diet and regular exercise, helped improve his overall health.
“My sleep apnea has subsided, my blood pressure is better and my cholesterol is better,” he said. “It’s not a miracle drug, but the program has been effective.”