The crazy cost of GLP-1s

GLP-1 drugs are still not approved by Medicare for treating obesity, but they are approved for treating diabetes and cardiovascular issues. And that alone means that “Medicare Spending on Ozempic and Other GLP-1s Is Skyrocketing.”

• In 2018, Medicare Part D spent about $57 million on Ozempic (the only GLP-1 available at the time).
• In 2022 it spent $5.7 billion-with-a-B on Mounjaro, Ozempic, and Rybelsus. That’s 100 times the amount.

Ozempic alone accounts for 2% of the entire Medicare Part D budget. Think about that — and think about what’s going to happen when GLP-1s are approved for more conditions.

Meanwhile….

A new Yale study found that …

The blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic could be manufactured for less than $5 a month, even as Novo Nordisk charges almost $1,000 per month for the injection in the U.S. before insurance, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that a month’s supply of the treatment could be made for an estimated 89 cents to $4.73, figures that include a profit margin. (Emphasis ours.)

Double-whammy immunization training

Pharmacists! Technicians! Get yer immunization training! GPhA is offering the two most popular courses in our library on the same day: Saturday, April 20 at the Marriott City Center in Macon (map).

Both include in-person and home study, and both give you the training you need to keep up with the latest in immunization best practices.

For pharmacists: The live portion of “APhA’s Pharmacy-Based Immunization Delivery: A Certificate Program for Pharmacists” is from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. It’s $349 for GPhA members ($499 for non-members). Click here for more info.

For technicians: The live portion of “GPhA Immunization Training for the Pharmacy Technician” is from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. It’s $199 for GPhA members ($249 for non-members). Click here for more info.

And both give you a nifty certificate for your wall that you can use to impress you boss and your patients. Sign up now before they fill up!

Reward!

If you have any info about the hackers that attacked the Change Healthcare network, there’s a $10 million reward “for information that would lead to the identification or location of anyone who engaged in the ‘malicious cyber activities’ against U.S. infrastructure on behalf of a foreign government.”

The latest cause of long Covid

According to UVA researchers, long Covid might be caused by “abzymes” — antibodies the body produces in response to the disease, but that act like enzymes. They end up interfering with processes that you probably don’t want interfered with, like blood pressure, clotting, and inflammation.

If patients with long COVID make abzymes that activate proteins that control processes such as coagulation and inflammation, that could explain the source of some of the long COVID symptoms and why long COVID symptoms persist even after the body has cleared the initial infection. It also may explain rare side effects of COVID-19 vaccination.

Right now this is still in the “hypothesis with some evidence to support it” stage, so — as always — more research is needed.

Half-help for rural folks

In rural areas, people can have multiple addictions — having both alcohol- and opioid-use disorders isn’t uncommon. The problem, found UCLA researchers, is that even though both disorders can be treated at the same time, most patients were only treated for one or the other.

In all, 85.3% of patients with a dual disorder were prescribed a medication for only one condition, compared to patients struggling with opioid use only (63.7%) or those battling alcohol issues only (10.3%), the study found.

And it’s not as if treating both is complex. Naltrexone does the trick. So what’s happening? They don’t know. They do know that these folks need more support than they’re getting, but medical care is hard enough to come by in a lot of rural areas.

Short takes

Coffee’s latest trick

It can help prevent the recurrence of colorectal cancer. A new Dutch/French study of 1,719 patients with colorectal cancer found that “[C]onsuming >4 cups/day of coffee compared to an intake of <2 cups/d was associated with a 32% lower risk of CRC [colorectal cancer] recurrence.”

Still nothing to see here, citizen. Move along

Bird flu has jumped to dairy cows in at least three states. That is all.

Questionable egg news

“Eggs May Not Be Bad for Your Heart After All” reads the headline. They might not affect cholesterol, and they might even be good for people with diabetes.

Who woula thunk? It’s been appearing in various news outlets, too, just in time for Easter.

One thing, though: The study was funded by Eggland’s Best — a brand of eggs. It also refers to fortified eggs, not your run-of-the-mill eggs.

Your grain of salt