A new drug by Eli Lilly is poised to become the biggest selling drug of all time. However, a writer at NBC News is worried about whether Americans can afford it. The drug tirzepatide has completed its final stages of testing and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is likely to approve it for weight loss in 2023. Tirzepatide is the third drug from a new class of diabetes drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which includes the drugs Wegovy and Saxenda.
Category: Devon Herrick
Health Plans Now Required to Provide Price Comparison Tools and Transparency
As of January 1st insurers and health plans are required to provide online tools to help enrollees estimate the cost of common medical services and procedures. As an aside, a future iteration of the law should also discourage medical professionals who work in hospitals or large practices controlled by private equity from only referring inside their systems without giving patients an opportunity to use the tools to shop elsewhere. I’ve never had a problem with doctors steering me to hospital-based services. Yet, I’ve heard horror stories about doctors being compensated or punish based on so-called keepage and leakage. This from Kaiser Health News:
FDA: Pharmacies Can Stock Abortion Pills; Mailing Them is Also Legal, According to Justice Dept.
A few months ago, I was talking to an old colleague about the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. I was reminded of the abortion ships would anchor just off the coast of Ireland in 2001. Would something similar occur off the Southeast coast and Gulf Coast? I even wondered how states would police the U.S. Postal Service, which could deliver pills capable of resulting in abortions through the mail.
FDA: Old Age and Aging is Not a Disease
Throughout human history children often struggled to make it to age five, due to infant mortality and childhood diseases. Undoubtedly the poor bore the brunt of infant mortality. However, the rich were not immune. Scientific American recently wrote about the mummy of the first-born son of an Austrian noble, who died at age 18 months. Although well fed, he apparently died of a vitamin D deficiency about 400 years ago.