Company expands its Sustainable Weight Loss offering with Responsible Prescribing capabilities to help organizations lower GLP-1 costs while improving outcomes

DENVER: Virta Health, the leader in diabetes reversal and sustainable weight loss with a nutrition-first approach, announced record and accelerating growth of more than 60% year-over-year, at a scale of more than $100 million in annualized revenue. Driven by demand for its Sustainable Weight Loss (SWL) solution—now expanded to include ‘Responsible Prescribing’ capabilities—and continued growth of its diabetes reversal offering, Virta works with more than 550 organizations and covers over 12 million U.S. lives.

Growing attention to the obesity crisis, coupled with the popularity of GLP-1 drugs, has accelerated demand for Virta’s nutrition-first approach to diabetes and obesity reversal, particularly given the low adherence rates and high cost of GLP-1s. To help employers, health plans, and pharmacy benefit managers deliver best-in-class outcomes with or without GLP-1 medications, Virta recently launched Responsible Prescribing, an expansion of its SWL suite. Now, Virta provides a drug-free alternative, combo therapy, and off-ramp for GLP-1s.

Virta’s approach provides payers the most cost-efficient options for long-term health improvement while integrating weight loss medications only as needed. Further, through its value-based care model, fees are 100% at risk for weight loss outcomes and select medication cost savings.

With Responsible Prescribing, Virta’s care team maximizes the value of GLP-1s, helping members implement lifestyle changes as an alternative to GLP-1s, or as an offramp from these drugs while maintaining weight loss. This offering builds on nearly a decade of experience safely prescribing and deprescribing GLP-1s for members with type 2 diabetes. Virta is the only lifestyle intervention with peer-reviewed results showing sustained weight loss following complete GLP-1 deprescription and 13% average weight loss for one year with nutrition alone.

“By offering Virta’s nutrition-first solutions with and without GLP-1s, we drove record and accelerating growth in 2024 and expect to reach profitability by the back half of this year,” said Sami Inkinen, Virta CEO and co-founder. “Virta’s initial growth was driven by our differentiated clinical and economic outcomes in type 2 diabetes. Now we’ve taken our evidence-based, nutrition-first approach to address the root cause of unhealthy weight and obesity too, which impacts nearly 75% of Americans. With this massive addressable market, it’s still very much ‘Day One’ for us.”

Enhancing Member Experience with Expanded Care Team and Personalized AI Tools

To support accelerating growth, Virta is rapidly scaling its care teams—more than doubling the number of full-time health coaches, physicians, nurses, and other medical providers. Virta has also launched a suite of AI-based tools to empower clinicians and help members kickstart nutrition changes, achieve meaningful health improvement, and sustain outcomes.

As an example, Viv, Virta’s AI Assistant, offers in-the-moment, personalized support for common, non-clinical requests. Members can choose whether they’d like to contact Viv for specific questions (e.g. “What are my best fast food options?”) or their health coach for more complex guidance (e.g. “I’d like more support from my partner”). Viv will roll out to members throughout 2025.

These resources help members receive on-demand support while empowering providers to spend more time on motivational coaching, emotional support, and complex medical issues.

Virta CEO Sami Inkinen will address Virta’s growth and the state of GLP-1s at its upcoming Moonshots for Health conference on January 29-30. Register to attend this free virtual event at: https://moonshots.virtahealth.com/

About Virta Health:

Virta Health is the leader in diabetes reversal and sustainable weight loss. Through a combination of personalized nutrition, technology, and expert support, Virta empowers members to build longer, healthier lives—while reducing or eliminating the need for medications. Virta partners with the nation’s largest employers, payers, and pharmacy benefit managers to improve the health of their members while reducing costs. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Virta’s mission is to reverse diabetes and obesity in one billion people. For more information, visit www.virtahealth.com.

Fonte: Business Wire