November 20, 2022 — Fed up. That’s where we are with stories about how people taking semaglutide for obesity are keeping people with diabetes from getting an adequate supply of the drug they need. Fed up, because it’s a stealthy way of expressing implicit bias against people living with obesity. The subtext is that those people don’t really need […]
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 […]
September 9, 2022 — Be careful what you wish for, says the wisdom of the ages. It’s all about unintended consequences. Right now, policymakers all over the political spectrum are wishing to solve the problem of drug pricing in the U.S. The simple fact is that drug pricing in the U.S. puts the best, most innovative drugs out of […]
January 12, 2022 — It’s been a long haul. But suddenly, we’re seeing a lot of optimism about anti-obesity medicines. Skeptics are yielding to stubborn facts about the impact of obesity on health. They are also yielding to good clinical data about the benefits of sound obesity care. So, too, are they seeing that newer generations of anti-obesity medicines […]
May 4, 2019 — My, how things have changed. Barely more than a decade ago, the dominant drugs for type 2 diabetes caused weight gain. Most big pharma companies were cutting obesity research. Eli Lilly and Sanofi were riding high in diabetes care and turning up their noses at obesity. But now the tables have turned. Sanofi’s diabetes business […]
March 17, 2019 — Prescription drug prices are under the microscope again and the intense scrutiny is unlikely to fade anytime soon. That’s because those prices are hurting people who need the drugs. The prime example of unaffordable drugs is insulin. In the short time between 2012 and 2016 alone, costs of insulin almost doubled. Some patients who need […]
January 11, 2014 — Surprising results in a study of a new drug treatment for fatty liver disease caused the stock of a small biotech company — Intercept Pharmaceuticals — to quadruple this week. The company has only 45 employees and no products yet, but its stock value jumped to $1.4 billion when a phase II trial of obeticholic acid […]
July 19, 2013 — Business analysts once again see opportunity in obesity for innovation that will bring financial rewards. Some are cheering because innovation is sorely lacking in our efforts to address obesity. Others fear crass exploitation of vulnerable people affected by obesity. Medical Device and Diagnostics Industry, a trade publication, reports that the market for weight management and […]
