November 3, 2023 — Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly updated their investors yesterday on their performance through the third quarter of 2023 and the word is that they are “raking in cash” from their new medicines that work so well in obesity. Gobs of money seem to be flowing to both companies, but the stories they were telling about […]
October 24, 2023 — We have grown tired of the mindless repetition of a $1,350 monthly list price for Wegovy in endless news reports about the great expense of this very important new drug for obesity. Not because the drug isn’t expensive. But because that list price is not an accurate representation of what the drug really costs. So […]
September 29, 2023 — In case you haven’t been paying attention, FDA issued a new label warning for semaglutide that should remind everyone of a key fact – it’s not suitable for DIY weight loss. The warning went onto the label for the Ozempic brand of semaglutide. It is already there for the Wegovy brand and for the Mounjaro […]
August 27, 2023 — Writing for the New York Times, Joseph Goldstein tells us that prescriptions for GLP-1 agonists are going to the wealthiest, whitest, and healthiest neighborhoods in New York City. Neighborhoods where the medical need is greatest? Not so much. Though we might hope that advanced medicines for obesity and diabetes would go to places with the […]
June 29, 2023 — After four exhilarating days of new possibilities for overcoming diabetes and obesity at ADA2023, we had to come back down to earth. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK stepped up to this task right away. On Tuesday, NICE said nope to recommending tirzepatide use for type 2 diabetes in the […]
April 28, 2023 — Tirzepatide, marketed by Lilly under the Mounjaro brand, may be gliding toward an FDA approval for obesity later this year. A year ago, the first phase 3 study results for tirzepatide in obesity wowed us. Yesterday, Lilly revealed yet another impressive piece of the puzzle – impressive weight reduction in persons who have both obesity […]
April 3, 2023 — This is a merger that has taken decades – the merger of obesity and diabetes. Ethan Sims first coined the term diabesity in 1973. Even five decades ago, the coincidence of diabetes and obesity was unmistakable, but the standards of care for obesity and diabetes did not reflect the recognition of obesity as anything other […]
December 10, 2022 — In a perverse way, there might be some good news in the current frothy coverage about new medicines for obesity and diabetes. We are a bit fed up with nonsense about who “deserves” access to care with drugs like semaglutide. But it does serve to highlight some of the usually hidden biases about treating obesity. […]
November 7, 2022 — There’s a clue in the strained supply of new obesity and diabetes meds that most everyone is missing. For more than a year now, Novo Nordisk has been unable to produce and distribute an adequate supply of semaglutide in the form of Wegovy for the treatment of obesity. This has knock-on effects. So supply of […]
May 24, 2022 — Drug pricing has been getting a lot of attention for some time now, so it’s no surprise that the prices of obesity medicines would get attention, too. New medicines are coming, competition will be increasing, and one factor in that competition will be prices. The only way to get good value is to consider both […]
