August 8, 2023 — No two ways about it. This is huge. The topline results of the SELECT trial of cardiovascular outcomes with semaglutide in obesity are out and unequivocal. Semaglutide cuts deaths and cardiovascular (CV) events in people with overweight and obesity. An important detail in the announcement of these results regards the three components of the primary […]
August 3, 2023 — Message to University of Texas Employees: Continuing to pay for obesity medicines is unsustainable. Message from Novo Nordisk: No comment. Price shocks for advanced obesity medicines are hitting employers. Things are starting to get messy in the marketplace and you can be pretty sure that they will only get messier as makers of obesity medicines […]
July 1, 2023 — The news arrived in our inbox yesterday. Drug shortages that have plagued semaglutide and tirzepatide are growing worse, not fading. Novo Nordisk quietly let the word out: those supply shortages are no longer limited to Ozempic and Wegovy. Saxenda is entering a prolonged period of shortage. So it now appears that constrained supply, high prices, […]
June 3, 2023 — In case you missed it, the framework for obesity care is in the midst of great change. The availability of medicines that actually work to an extent never seen before is causing everyone to question presumptions that researchers and specialists have known to be false for some time. But these great changes are giving rise […]
May 12, 2023 — Don’t look at me! That’s basically how it went at a U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday. Top executives from PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) and the three pharma companies selling insulin testified to suggest they’re doing everything they possibly can to keep drug prices low. PBMs point the finger at pharma. Pharma executives return the favor. Lilly […]
December 29, 2022 — Very quietly, just before Christmas, FDA approved a major step forward for treating obesity in teens. The agency issued an approval for Wegovy brand of semaglutide to treat obesity in teens. There was no press release at FDA, none on the corporate website for Novo Nordisk. As late as yesterday, the news of this approval […]
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. […]
August 4, 2022 — Sometimes the hardest news to digest is no news. This was certainly the case yesterday for Novo Nordisk, the market leader in anti-obesity medicines. Their stock dropped by nearly 13 percent when the company told investors that there would be no news on the semaglutide SELECT study. So why was no news seemingly such big […]
May 14, 2022 — Yesterday, FDA approved tirzepatide for type 2 diabetes, calling it “an important advance.” The brand name will be Mounjaro. This is the same drug for which its maker, Eli Lilly and Company, announced remarkable results in a phase 3 obesity study barely two weeks ago. It is the first of its kind – a dual […]
May 12, 2022 — Somehow this doesn’t seem right. The list price for for a month’s supply of semaglutide when it’s for diabetes is $892. No matter whether you need a dose of 1 mg, or the new high dose of 2 mg, the price is the same. It goes under the brand name of Ozempic and comes from […]
