All articles tagged with #healthcarepharmaceuticals
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are inching closer to justifying their high valuations as the U.S. government announces plans to cover weight loss drug Wegovy for Medicare patients, potentially including other drugs like Zepbound for cardiovascular disease. This move could make the pharma giants' valuations seem less far-fetched, especially as obesity treatments become bigger sellers with Medicare's support.
Eli Lilly has partnered with Amazon's pharmacy unit to deliver drug prescriptions through its direct-to-consumer service, LillyDirect, which was launched in January to provide migraine, diabetes, and obesity drugs, including Zepbound, directly to patients. The prescriptions will be delivered by either Amazon Pharmacy or Truepill, depending on insurance coverage and other factors. The move comes amid surging demand for weight-loss drugs, and Lilly is also considering partnering with a retail pharmacy for a pick-up option. The website also connects patients to independent telehealth providers and aims to enhance its offerings with additional medicines and service providers in the near future.
The FDA's website indicates limited availability of higher doses of Eli Lilly's diabetes drug, Mounjaro, due to increased demand, with intermittent back orders expected through early March 2024. The company acknowledges the potential disruption in treatment regimens and is working urgently to address the situation. The supply constraints are attributed to soaring demand for GLP-1 agonists, used for diabetes and weight loss, affecting drugmakers like Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Other Mounjaro doses are currently in stock, and both companies are striving to boost production to meet the strong demand.
Pliant Therapeutics' drug bexotegrast shows consistent safety across dose ranges in a Phase IIa trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), although the highest dose did not demonstrate improved activity over lower doses based on new biomarker data. Analysts remain optimistic about the drug's overall development, as it inhibits two integrins to block the activation of TGF-beta, a central mediator of fibrosis in PSC patients.
Prominent weight-loss drugs, known as GLP-1s, made by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, may not have as much lasting impact on healthcare in 2024 as previously expected. Analysts are predicting less need for medtech devices and surgeries due to the popularity of these drugs, but recent commentary suggests a shift away from the initial fear and panic surrounding their impact. Fast-food and fast-casual chains' valuation rebound is credited to a cooling GLP-1 narrative, with industry veterans noting that accessibility to these drugs is difficult for lower-income consumers and that healthier alternatives may boost business. The uptake of these drugs, accessibility, side effects, and production constraints are still key factors in determining their long-term impact.
The FDA issued an untitled letter to Novartis, criticizing a TV commercial for the breast cancer drug Kisqali as containing "false or misleading" information. The ad, which featured a "Long Live" tagline and ran from 2022 to September 2023, was flagged for potentially giving metastatic breast cancer patients an exaggerated impression of the drug's effectiveness in treating their condition and symptoms.
Peter Marks, the FDA's top gene therapy regulator, appears open to granting some form of full approval to Sarepta Therapeutics' gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Elevidys, despite the failure of a confirmatory study in October. Marks suggested that the FDA has approved products based on aggregate scale performance, indicating a potential willingness to overlook certain imperfections in the data.