Facing big clawbacks, another insulin price cut

Sanofi is the latest company to cut its insulin prices in the US. Like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk before it, the company was facing millions in Medicaid rebates if it didn’t.

The companies said they decided to lower costs to ensure that patients could afford their medications. But Novo Nordisk and Sanofi’s changes kick in on Jan. 1 and coincide with the elimination of a cap that limits how much manufacturers have to rebate Medicaid.

Cooling the hot flashes

It was developed to treat schizophrenia, but British scientists found that a compound (with the memorable name MLE4901) can also prevent hot flashes in menopausal women. In fact, it knocked out 72% of those flashes — and started working within 3 days.

Also, the women reported that the number of hot flashes that disrupted their sleep at night fell by 82 percent and that they experienced 77 percent less impairment to concentration when on the drug.

Bonus: Includes our favorite phrase: “game-changer”!

Tomorrow, on your supplement shelf….

The quest for immortal mice continues. The latest target: effects of the protein menin. When menin levels get lower with age, it leads to “reductions in bone mass and skin thickness, cognitive decline, and modestly reduced lifespan.”

It also means less production of the amino acid D-serine. So what happens if you increase that D-serine level? Would it counteract the menin loss? As a matter of fact, yes. When Chinese scientists gave mice supplements of D-serine…

…[they] found improved skin thickness and bone mass, along with better learning, cognition, and balance, which correlated with an increase in D-serine within the hippocampus.

And that was after just three weeks. So should you rush out to take D-serine supplements? Probably not. It’s hard to find and, of course, more research is needed.

Thinner people, thinner wallets

If Medicare opts to cover the new crop of obesity meds, it could clobber the system’s finances. Not only are drug companies charging through the roof for the meds, they need to be taken for life to have continued effect.

Presently, Medicare is forbidden by law from paying for antiobesity prescriptions. But should the bipartisan The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act get reintroduced and passed by Congress, Medicare will be compelled to cover drugs for weight loss.

Health economists estimate that those drugs would make up almost 20% of Medicare’s entire budget.

A prescription for breakup food

The good news: Eating after a breakup can soothe your broken heart.

The bad news: Artichokes top the list of best foods to do the job.

The better news: Dark chocolate isn’t far behind.

The unsurprising news: Soup is on the list, too.

And so the pendulum swings

New science indicates that the Covid-19 pandemic did, in fact, originate from wild animals in the Wuhan market, not from a lab leak. (For what it’s worth, this is from a team of virus experts, not a government department.) The possible culprit: raccoon dogs.

[T]he analysis did establish that raccoon dogs — fluffy animals that are related to foxes and are known to be able to transmit the coronavirus — deposited genetic signatures in the same place where genetic material from the virus was left, the three scientists said. That evidence, they said, was consistent with a scenario in which the virus had spilled into humans from a wild animal.

The Long Read: Better Cardio Marker edition

Instead of LDL cholesterol levels, lipids called ceramides are gaining attention as better biomarkers for cardiovascular disease. There’s only one testing lab, and cardiologists are only now learning to look at them. But…

The first drugs specifically designed to lower ceramide levels are also on the horizon, with at least two companies hoping to begin clinical trials within the next year or so.

Short Takes

But will it be in time?

The Dutch have two potential vaccines against bird flu.

ICYMI: We’ve got a maternal problem

The maternal death rate in the United States rose 38% in 2021 to its highest rate in 60 years, likely in large part because of the pandemic. We continue to have highest rate in the developed world — we’re talking triple that of the European Union and worse than Kazakhstan, Iran, and even North Macedonia.