Posts Tagged ‘access to care’

The unmet need for delivering obesity care at scale is indisputably great. Just thinking about it is daunting because the need is so great. It will require new thinking. One thread of that new thinking is all of the innovation in telemedicine that’s unfolding before our eyes. In Obesity this month, we see yet another […]

Business is apparently booming in the criminal trade for bogus obesity medicines. The Times (London) reports that criminals are selling dangerous weight-loss jabs on social media and in gyms. They write that: “Pharmaceutical bosses have issued a stark warning about medicines such as Mounjaro sold online without safety controls as gangs branch out from hard […]

Truveta this week published data that reveals striking growth in the use of GLP-1s by women with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). Prescriptions for semaglutide or tirzepatide have risen by more than 700% in women with PCOS, according to their analysis. So don’t think that this is slipping right by the bean counters at drug benefit […]

Americans are only barely aware of the role that pharmacy benefit managers play in health insurance. But what they do know is not good. To the extent that most people know anything about these shadowy players in health insurance, they know PBMs control which drugs they can get, how much hassle it is to get […]

Anyone who thought this would be a passing thing was way off the mark. As prices of GLP-1 medicines are falling, their use is rising. As Stat News notes, we now have more people using these medicines than the entire population of Texas. This rising trend occurs against a background of costs that are still […]

President Trump held a press event yesterday to issue some very welcome news on coverage and prices for obesity medicines. On prices, they are coming down. In reality, this is an extension of the ongoing trend of downward pressure on these prices that has been in play since the day that semaglutide and tirzepatide launched […]

A year ago, we had these wonderful new obesity medicines – semaglutide and tirzepatide – and nobody could get them. Demand had outstripped supply and we had a shortage. Earlier this year, the supply shortage for both drugs resolved, but now we face the same situation because of a different shortage. There is a shortage […]

The acute shortage of obesity medicines is over. But in absolute terms we are still operating with a mindset of scarcity when thoughts turn to obesity care. Policy often dictates limited access to care and even more so, to medicines that can so effectively treat this condition. What happens if we start thinking in terms […]

It’s entertaining, but not really funny. At an Oval Office press event Thursday, which was supposed to be all about fertility drugs, President Trump opened his remarks talking about “a certain drug” that costs $130 in London and $1,300 in New York. “So now we’re going to be paying, instead of $1,300, you’ll be paying […]

A perverse economic environment is, arguably, propelling us toward an overwhelming health problem with obesity that is becoming a wealth issue. Nick Triggle reports in depth for the BBC and makes a strong case for the idea that advanced obesity medicines are turning obesity into a wealth issue. People with the least wealth have the […]