Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Semaglutide Use Has Prompted 'Staggering' Number Of GLP-1 Poison Control Calls
HealthDay: GLP-1 Weight-Loss Boom Linked To Surge In Poison Control Calls
Prior to approval, U.S. poison control centers recorded roughly 1,000 to 1,500 cases annually. After mid-2021, call volumes nearly doubled. And by 2023, poison centers logged more than 8,000 GLP-1-related calls. When researchers examined the increase by specific medication, semaglutide accounted for 64% of all GLP-1-related calls, according to the results. (6/25)
KFF Health News: Trouble Getting Weight Loss Drugs Covered By Insurance? Here’s What To Know
A professional in-home caregiver lost her coverage for Zepbound. She soon realized getting it back was not straightforward. Deborah Finley, 50, of Lodi, California, said her weight started to worry her during the early days of covid. That’s when she noticed a lot of the people who were on ventilators or dying had something in common: obesity. (Lupkin, 6/26)
Stat: What Is Pulmonary Hypertension, And Could GLP-1s Help?
On Tuesday STAT reported on a mystery patient with obesity, sleep apnea, and pulmonary hypertension who’d received an obesity drug not yet approved by federal drug regulators. The identity of the 79-year-old who won access in April to the Eli Lilly experimental drug retatrutide under a compassionate use program — typically reserved for people who are terminally ill — is still unknown. But the report has raised interest in pulmonary hypertension. (Cooney, 6/26)
In other pharmaceutical news —
The New York Times: Medical Journal Retracts Study Claiming Cancer Therapy Is More Effective When Given In The Morning
Early this year, a medical journal article caught the attention of cancer patients and doctors worldwide because of its extraordinary conclusion. Simply changing the time of day that immunotherapy was administered appeared to produce a stunning benefit for lung cancer patients. Those who received IV infusions in the morning had their cancer kept at bay for twice as long as those who got it in the afternoon, according to the results from a clinical trial in China and published in the journal Nature Medicine in February. The study also reported that the patients lived nearly twice as long. (Robbins, 6/25)
FiercePharma: AstraZeneca Spells Out A Community Cancer Screening Strategy With The YMCA
Over the first two years of their partnership, AstraZeneca and Y-USA aim to reach 175,000 people across 75 communities in the U.S. The partners plan to raise awareness of cancer screening and early detection using “tailored, community-driven solutions.” (Taylor, 6/25)
NBC News: Serious Statin Side Effects On Muscles Are Extremely Rare, New Research Confirms
People are more worried about severe muscular problems when taking statins than they should be: Such side effects are exceedingly rare, research published Thursday in the journal The Lancet Digital Health reaffirms. Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, and statins can lower LDL cholesterol levels by as much as 60%, reducing a person’s risk of a heart attack or stroke. But despite more than 50 years of data showing the cholesterol-lowering medications are safe, many people are still hesitant to take statins, fearing side effects. (Sullivan, 6/25)
The 19th: No, Your Drinking Water Isn’t Contaminated By Abortion Pills
Anti-abortion advocates, including Republican lawmakers and state officials, want the EPA to review mifepristone as a water contaminant. Scientists say there’s no evidence it harms the environment or people. (Barnes, 6/25)
Stat: Medetomidine: New Hidden Danger In Opioid Withdrawal For Inmates
When Lillian was booked into a rural Pennsylvania jail, she couldn’t stop vomiting. As she showered and changed into her jail uniform, “brain zaps” kept destabilizing her. “The corrections officer watching me kept having to grab me steady or I would have dropped and hit the floor,” Lillian recalled. (Green, 6/26)
MedPage Today: We Have Antiretrovirals And PrEP. So Why Hasn't The HIV Epidemic Ended?
Last week, the United Nations (UN) issued a declaration renewing its call to eliminate of HIV/AIDS by 2030, to be accomplished in part by boosting spending on eradicating the disease in lower- and middle-income countries. The U.S. was one of eight countries that didn't sign the declaration. The UN action was the latest in a string of efforts to end an epidemic that began 47 years ago, in 1981. (Frieden, 6/25)
