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 […]
August 19, 2023 — The intersection of high U.S. drug prices with its high obesity rates is creating some unusual economics. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Peterson Center on Healthcare released an analysis this week that brings this into sharp focus. The analysis tells us that published prices for GLP-1 medicines used for obesity and diabetes are the […]
July 10, 2023 — In thoughtful reporting for Fortune, Rachel Shin explores the possibility for broader access to advanced obesity meds leading to lower prices. But it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg puzzle because it might be more likely that lower prices will lead to broader access. Novopoly Shin calls it a Novopoly. Novo Nordisk invested billions of dollars […]
June 8, 2023 — Typically, Ruth Marcus writes about justice for the Washington Post. But this week, she posted a very personal essay – “the most personal piece I have ever written” – about her experience with taking Ozempic. More than just a testimonial about the life-changing effects of better obesity care, it became an exploration of the interaction […]
April 26, 2023 — Insights surface when we take the time to listen to people living with obesity. Yesterday, Ro and the Obesity Action Coalition released results from a study of the thoughts and feelings people are having about obesity, weight loss, and the new GLP-1 medicines. There’s a lot to think about in these results – about motivations […]
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 […]
March 28, 2023 — A close look at how health insurance denies access to care for children and youth with severe obesity reveals one thing. The system is really set up as insurance for profits – not for health. The story of Debra and Dan Tyler seeking care for one of their daughters, as reported by Ariana Eunjung Cha […]
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 […]
October 31, 2022 — One of the themes you will hear when ObesityWeek gets underway tomorrow in San Diego is the dramatic progress that’s coming into view with new obesity drugs. But the picture quickly becomes murky in the real world because of issues with supply and access to these new and improved obesity meds. The access to care […]
