After losing and regaining the same 20-plus pounds more times than she could count, Anita Blanchard concluded that diets don’t work.

So when the University of North Carolina-Charlotte professor learned that Ozempic — developed to treat Type 2 diabetes — helped people lose weight and keep it off, Blanchard was determined to try it.

The state employee’s health insurance initially covered the prescription with Blanchard kicking in a $25 copayment. Over the next seven months, she said, she…