Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Weight Loss Drug Manufacturers Aim For Medicare Coverage
The Wall Street Journal: Weight-Loss Drugmakers Lobby For Medicare Coverage
Weight-loss drugmakers are lobbying Congress to grant them access to a monster payday for their blockbuster treatments: Medicare coverage. New drugs to treat diabetes and obesity are helping people shed pounds and generating huge sales for Novo Nordisk AS and Eli Lilly & Co. But they cost hundreds of dollars a month or more and Medicare doesn’t cover them to treat obesity. The law governing Medicare’s prescription-drug benefit excludes weight drugs. If that changed, demand from the 65 million older and disabled people insured through Medicare could push sales even higher. (Whyte, 4/24)
NBC News: Are Weight Loss Drugs Causing Hair Loss? Doctors Weigh In
As drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic soar in popularity for weight loss, pounds aren’t the only thing people report losing: Social media groups for people taking the medications include posts about losing hair, too. “What is really striking for folks is that there are no scalp symptoms. It doesn’t hurt, there’s no itching, but you can run your hands through your hair and you have a handful of hair. It can be really disconcerting to see that,” said Dr. Susan Massick, a dermatologist at Ohio State University, who has seen patients who have lost hair following weight loss surgery. (Sullivan, 4/22)
The New York Times: An Extreme Risk Of Taking Ozempic: Malnutrition
Almost immediately after starting Ozempic, a diabetes medication known for inducing weight loss, Renata Lavach-Savy, 37, a medical writer in North Bergen, N.J., was left without any semblance of appetite. She started setting alarms to remind herself to eat. She was so exhausted that even after 10 hours of sleep, she would collapse onto her couch after work, unable to move. She left purses and clothes strewn across her bedroom floor, because she was so queasy all the time and worried that bending down to pick them up would make her vomit. Four months later, Ms. Lavach-Savy’s dietitian told her that she might be malnourished. (Blum, 4/21)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Reuters: Exclusive: Lilly Expects US Medicare To Reverse Course, Fully Cover Alzheimer's Drugs
Eli Lilly and Co expects the U.S. Medicare health plan to back down from strict coverage limits on new Alzheimer's drugs as more evidence emerges in coming weeks showing that clearing amyloid brain plaques can help patients, a company executive told Reuters. Lilly plans to release results from a trial of its experimental amyloid-targeting drug donanemab before the end of June. More study data on Leqembi, a rival drug from partners Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc, is also expected in the coming months. (Beasley and Steenhuysen, 4/21)
CIDRAP: Study: Single Dose Of HPV Vaccine Up To 98% Effective
A new study from researchers at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) showed a single dose of human papillomavirus virus (HPV) vaccine was highly efficacious in preventing HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, in girls and women ages 15 to 20. (Soucheray, 4/21)
KFF Health News: US Officials Want To End The HIV Epidemic By 2030. Many Stakeholders Think They Won’t
In 2018, Mike Ferraro was living on the street and sharing needles with other people who injected drugs when he found out he was HIV-positive. “I thought it was a death sentence, where you have sores and you deteriorate,” he said. Ferraro learned of his HIV status through a University of Miami Miller School of Medicine initiative called IDEA Exchange, which sent doctors and medical students to the corner where he panhandled. He got tested and enrolled in the program, which also provides clean syringes, overdose reversal medications, and HIV prevention and treatment drugs. (Chang and Whitehead, 4/24)
Also —
Stat: Europe Braces For Legislation With Far-Reaching Impacts On Pharma
After more than two years of planning, the European Commission on Wednesday will release long-awaited draft legislation poised to transform the way medicines are brought to market and accessed across much of Europe. (Silverman and Joseph, 4/24)
