The first 10 drugs to be negotiated

CMS has released the list of the first 10 drugs that it’s not going to pay whatever the drug companies demand — these are the meds it’s going to negotiate the prices of.

The list:

You know the drill: Drug companies say having to negotiate prices will be the end of the world as we know it, CMS says this is how capitalism works, yada yada yada.

Why it’s a big deal: Medicare, i.e., taxpayers, spent $50.5 billion on these drugs in just one year. And while Medicare Part D covers hundreds of drugs, these 10 alone accounted for 20% of spending.

(A quick poll of the Buzz offices puts our bet on the courts siding with the pharma companies and saying CMS can’t negotiate prices — ‘If Congress wants to allow drug-price negotiation, it needs to change the law.’ But who knows?^*)

^* The Shadow. The Shadow knows.

Pfizer plant update

Pfizer thinks its tornado-damaged North Carolina facility can start cranking out drugs in the fourth quarter. Parts of that plant have already reopened, and the company has secured storage space to replace what was destroyed in July.

Breast cancer patients skip their drugs

Did you know that — despite the fact that they cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence by half (!) — something like 40% of breast cancer patients don’t take their drugs after treatment?

It’s not entirely the cost. By pretty much stopping estrogen production, these drugs can bring a host of side effects “including weight gain, sexual side effects, joint pain, depression, and sleeplessness,” as University of Colorado research found.

Education alone didn’t help adherence. Cutting the cost did (e.g., requiring insurers to cover the costs), as did treating patients’ depression and reminding them of their motivations for living longer. But perhaps most important is making sure healthcare providers are aware that adherence is such a big issue.

Track ’n’ trace delayed a year

The Drug Supply Chain Security Act — aka “track and trace” — was supposed to take effect on November 27, but the FDA, under pressure from groups including the APhA, NACDS, and NCPA, has agreed to delay enforcement for a year, until November 2024.

Those groups wanted enforcement to wait till February 2026, but the FDA was, like, ‘We literally told you about this 10 years ago.’

Will someone think of the children?

Are GLP-1 inhibitors safe for them?

UC Irvine experts^* warn that using drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy to treat childhood obesity is probably not a good idea, or at least has to be monitored very carefully.

“Our major concern is the unbalance and inappropriate reductions in calorie or energy intake associated with these weight loss drugs. Unlike in adults, children and adolescents need energy and sufficient calories not only for physical activity but for growth and development.”

^* “a team of clinicians, exercise scientists, pharmaceutical scholars, ethicists and behavioral experts” 

What about cannabis-based drugs?

Researchers at the University of Manitoba wondered if cannabis was safe and effective for kids, so they looked at the existing studies. The answer they found is that we just don’t know.

[The analysis] found the evidence just isn’t there to determine dosing, safety and efficacy of medical marijuana or cannabis-containing products for managing symptoms experienced by these kids.

It seems that marijuana is helpful fighting nausea, but “Data are lacking on cannabinoids’ effects on pain, mood, sleep, and health-related quality of life.”

If we’re going to start using cannabis-based drugs, they say, more research is needed to look at dosing, side effects, and tolerance.

How Goldilocks’s grandma sleeps

For older folks, sleeping in a room between 68° and 77° gives the best sleep quality — so says a study out of Harvard’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research.

Higher than that and any normal person will be uncomfortable, lower than that and seniors might feel like they’re in a morgue.