December 20, 2024 — Are we indeed reaching the end of the on-again, off-again supply shortage for GLP-1 obesity medicines? That seems to be what FDA signaled yesterday. The agency posted a brief statement, not only noting its determination that the tirzepatide shortage is “resolved,” but also saying the national GLP-1 supply has begun to stabilize. FDA is looking at […]
December 16, 2024 — The closing days of 2024 give us a moment to reflect on the stories that defined this year in obesity and health. It’s been a big year, with no shortage of news on this subject. But the major themes stand out very clearly. Health Outcomes Beyond Weight Loss This was the year that objective evidence […]
November 9, 2024 — The wild ride that has been 2024 in the market for obesity care is not quite over yet. If you want to know exactly how wild this ride has been, take a moment to digest the results that the two leaders in obesity – Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk – have posted. The sales Lilly […]
October 27, 2024 — It seems that both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are dreaming of a bigger ban on competition for their wildly successful obesity drugs. With semaglutide and tirzepatide, they have valuable assets that meet a tremendous medical need. And they really do not like the compounding pharmacies taking big bites from their apples. So this week, […]
October 17, 2024 — On again, off again. With impressive nimbleness, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reversed course on tirzepatide compounding in large-scale pharmacy facilities. On October 2, they told those facilities to knock it off. Late last week, the agency told them to carry on – for now. FDA was responding to a lawsuit filed by compounding […]
October 3, 2024 — Late yesterday, FDA announced that Lilly’s tirzepatide shortage is officially over. Both Mounjaro and Zepbound are fully available in all marketed strengths and dosage forms. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined the shortage of tirzepatide injection, a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) medication, has been resolved. Tirzepatide injection has been in shortage since 2022 […]
September 28, 2024 — Since forever, health systems have been closed to the need for obesity care. While obesity prevalence tripled, care providers, health plans, and even government policy doubled down on a simple response. “Your obesity is not our problem. It’s yours. Go away, eat less, move more, and come back when you’ve lost 25, 50, or 100 […]
June 1, 2024 — This is a problem of human mistakes. Compounding pharmacies are exploiting the failure of pharmaceutical companies to meet the scale of need for effective obesity medicines. So people with a serious medical need for these medicines face a hideous choice. Suffer without them or take a chance on dodgy compounded products. The fact that this […]
May 25, 2024 — We’ve been waiting for this. Back in October, headlines flashed the news that Novo Nordisk had stopped a big outcomes study of semaglutide and its effect on kidney failure and death. They stopped it because it had worked so well. Continuing to give a placebo to half the people in the study would have been […]
December 30, 2023 — FDA tells us we have a problem – actually two of them, and they’re connected to a third. First, counterfeit versions of the Ozempic brand of semaglutide injections are finding their way into pharmacies. These fakes present an inherent risk of problems with safety and effectiveness. Second, compounded versions of semaglutide are selling in some […]
