AT A GLANCE After a whole night of spooky fun and plenty of treats, may this Diwali bring peace and prosperity to your life! Wishing you and your family a joyous and prosperous Diwali, with happiness, health, and wealth. With two years of Perspectives across metabolic and obesity care, comprising almost one hundred newsletters, reaching one thousand subscribers, with five thousand views
AT A GLANCE Novo Nordisk wants to prevent compounding pharmacies from making its GLP-1 meds, as they are too complex for manufacturers to make safely, per CNBC. Elaine Chen, Lizzy Lawrence and Ed Silverman at STAT on the FDA’s current flat-spin, on its about-face on shortages of Eli Lilly drug tirzetapide. My favorite weekly news read, The Economist, leads with ‘The everything drugs’ in the
AT A GLANCE Endpoints News leads with the surprising twist, that the FDA said it would rethink ending the shortage of Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug tirzepatide. The UK National Health Service receives a £279 million boost to tackle significant health challenges, from Eli Lilly. Greg Justice at asteriskmag asks How Long Till We’re All on Ozempic? An unprecedented online cash grab powering telehealth’s GLP-1 ‘gold rush’ is reviewed by
AT A GLANCE STAT reports The Outsourcing Facilities Association, has sued the FDA for a ‘reckless and arbitrary’ decision to remove tirzetapide from the shortages list. Eli Lilly is sending hundreds of cease-and-desist letters to telehealth companies, compounding pharmacies and medical spas, from Bloomberg. Christina Farr at Second Opinion asks Could we have hit “peak obesity” The Congressional Budget Office reports on the estimated budgetary effects of an illustrative policy to
AT A GLANCE From STAT, Chief Executive of Roche’s pharma division, Teresa Graham, says on weight loss drugs ‘… that in a $100- to $250-billion market, there’s a lot of room for multiple players.’ Obesity start-up Metsera ‘…is partnering with drug manufacturer Amneal Pharmaceuticals…’ as per Elaine Chen at STAT. STAT reports Atlas Venture and Bain Capital Life Sciences are launching a new startup with $400 million
AT A GLANCE STAT’s Elaine Chen on Novo Nordisk’s trial of cannabinoid CB1 receptor inhibitor monlunabant, with modest 6.4% weight loss and some psychiatric side effects. Metsera announced phase 1 clinical trial results of MET-097, a long-acting injectable GLP-1 drug with weight reduction of 7.5% at day 36. Modern Healthcare on Mount Sinai partnering with Noom, aimed at behavioral approaches to weight loss. Medicare spent $5.6B on
AT A GLANCE On x.com Senator Bernie Sanders said once Ozempic’s exclusivity ends, drug manufacturers could sell generic versions for less than $100 per month. Dr. Daniela Lamas writes on GLP-1 meds in The New York Times, that the drugs’ ‘…numerous benefits are pointing to an emerging cause of so much human disease: inflammation.’ Dr. Lotte Bjerre Knudsen at Novo Nordisk, who led the team that
AT A GLANCE Terns Pharmaceuticals released data that 67% of patients taking the highest dose of TERN-601 lost at least 5% of their body weight at 28 days. STAT on Novo Nordisk reported that its new obesity pill that targets the amylin hormone led to substantial weight loss in an early study. Trust for America’s Health on obesity rates for U.S. adults were at or higher than 35
AT A GLANCE Andrew Joseph at STAT writes from the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting in London, that ‘…Wegovy’s the word.’ The Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker writes ‘…over 40% of adults under 65 with private insurance could be indicated for a GLP-1 drug…’ totaling 57.4 million US adults. Quartz reports on BioAge Labs leading drug candidate azelaprag, a pill that mimics apelin, when taken with a
AT A GLANCE STAT notes ‘…Glucose tracking is the future, Dexcom executives gushed at a glitzy launch event…’ A busy week on GLP-1 pricing… first, with NBC News referring to Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen defending the high cost of Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S. Eli Lilly unexpectedly ‘…announced Zepbound 2.5 mg and 5 mg single-dose vials are available… at a 50% or greater
