Yi Chen: Got it. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from Neil Chatterji with B. Riley. Please proceed with your question.
Brandon Carney: Hi. This is Brandon Carney on for Neil. Congratulations on a great quarter and thanks for taking our questions. Just to start maybe with the Zepbound approval today, maybe I could ask for some color on how the addition of new GLP-1 options, accelerate the potential growth of the weight loss business.
Justin Schreiber: Sure. This is Justin. I’ll answer that. I think that the more options that our affiliated providers have to help patients achieve their weight loss objectives, the better and more comprehensive the offering is going to be. So, all these approvals help us. The other drugs in this class that are also working their way through the FDA are going to help us. Liraglutide is going to be an option for some patients as well. So this stuff certainly is very helpful. I think what’s more helpful though is going to end up being like these drugs coming off the shortage list them being available for patients, accessible to patients and then them being covered ultimately by insurance plans. Affordability is the number one thing.
Brandon Carney: Perfect. And then I guess just going back to the retention question. So you mentioned like the 25% to 30% drop off in the first 30 days. I was just wondering if there’s any mitigation strategies going into pushing down that number or if you think that things like what you’re just talking about will just naturally push down that number.
Justin Schreiber: We’re doing everything we can. The reality is most of these patients are coming in and signing up for this program, because they’ve heard about a GLP-1, because they have a friend or family member or they heard about the news or read an article on it and that’s what they want. And if they find out that their insurance is not going to cover it, it’s going to cost them $1,000 a month or there’s a number of those patients as well that they don’t qualify for the drug. So we adhere very strongly to the label, that’s on these medications. So patients that are between 27 and 30 BMI that don’t have at least one comorbidity, a LifeMD affiliated provider will not prescribe them the medications. Obviously, patients that are under a 27 BMI, we will not prescribe the medications to them.
So that 30% number, it’s not only patients that are not able to afford the medication or don’t have coverage for the medication. There’s also some patients in there that are Medicare age so to be out of an abundance of caution and just to be very careful like LifeMD doesn’t prescribe or treat patients that are of Medicare age until we turn on formally our Medicare program. So there are a lot of people that sign up even though our technology won’t let them sign up. A lot of people will change their date of birth in order to sign up for the program and we obviously find that out when we check their ID and they see a provider and then, those people are refunded. So it’s a mix that 30% number there are numerous reasons why those people are refunded.
And I think that number can come down a little bit. But what we’re more focused on is actually just doing everything we can to offer incredible care to the two-thirds of patients that end up on a therapy. And then we’re also really focused on what happens after these patients reach their goal weight. And how do we keep at least a-third of those patients even on the LifeMD platform interacting with one of our affiliate providers using our technology all the other things we offer how do we keep a-third of those patients for years. And that’s actually what we’re most focused on right now as a team.
Brandon Carney: Great. That’s really helpful. Thanks. And maybe just one last one on the commercial insurance launch. Are you still expecting programs in 10 states by the end of the year? And how does the outlook look for further expansion next year?
