Podcast Episode Recommendation: Dear Diabetes Podcast with hostess Rene é Rayles Episode 7
The Dear Diabetes Podcast with hostess Rene é Rayles is a relatively new podcast covering the subject of diabetes; it began quite recently on March 29, 2023. However, Reneé Rayles recently interviewed Civica, Inc. ' s current CEO Ned McCoy. Recall that on June 1, 2023, Ned McCoy succeeded Martin VanTrieste as Civica ' s President and CEO (see the press release athttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220524005169/en/Civica-Announces-Leadership-Transition for details). She spoke with Mr. McCoy about the company ' s affordable insulin biosimilar effort, which is proceeding according to planCivica has released...
Source: Scott's Web Log - June 2, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Civica CivicaRx CivicaScript Dear Diabetes Podcast podcast episode recommendations Rene é Rayles Source Type: blogs
Humira Biosimilar Gross-to-Net Pricing Bubble Was Preceded by the Same Pricing Bubble Burst for Insulin Just Months Ago
Today ' s post is not about diabetes per se, although there IS a diabetes connection. But this morning, the big news was that a biosimilar of Abbvie ' s blockbuster anti-inflammatory biologic Humira will be sold byMark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (see the press release athttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/06/01/2680351/33333/en/Mark-Cuban-Cost-Plus-Drug-Company-joins-forces-with-Coherus-to-make-YUSIMRY-a-HUMIRA-biosimilar-available-to-patients.html for more) at what amounts to an 85% discount to the innovator drug. Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company announced the Humira biosimilar on social media today. See th...
Source: Scott's Web Log - June 1, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Abbvie Biosimilar drug discounts gross-to-net bubble Humira insulin Source Type: blogs
Caremark's President Speaks at'Forum 2023 '
David Joyner is President& EVP of CVS ' Caremark PBM business. Caremark refers to that event and business as " Payor Solutions " whose website is athttps://payorsolutions.cvshealth.com/. Truth be told, CVS Caremark would rather patients whose insurance use Caremark as their PBM do not know what the PBM ' s executives say or do behind their veil of secrecy.On May 5, 2023, the Caremark PBM business of CVS Health hosted an event it called " Forum 2023 " , and Mr. Joyner gave a presentation on " What ' next for payors " . It was rather amusing that CVS Health said: " though the [PBM] system is working – from claim adjudi...
Source: Scott's Web Log - May 31, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Aetna Caremark CVS Caremark CVS Health David Joyner Payor Solutions Source Type: blogs
" Endocrine News " Podcast Episode 69: Biosimilar Insulin
The Endocrine Society has several podcasts; one of its podcasts is known by the name of " Endocrine News " . Ordinarily, I ignore most of the Endocrine Society podcasts because: a) they tend to be disproportionately focused on the topic of Type 2 diabetes and treatments for that and b) even when the podcast subject matter includes Type 1 diabetes, I find alternative sources provide considerably more information on the same topics. Partly, it is because the Endocrine Society ' s Endocrine News podcast tends to be only about 10-30 minutes in length which is frequently insufficient to address the topics they aim to addre...
Source: Scott's Web Log - May 6, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Biosimilar Biosomilars endocrine news episode insulin irl hirsch podcast podcast episode recommendations the endocrine society Source Type: blogs
Optum Store Opting Out of Direct-to-Consumer Pharmacy Biz
Last November [2022], I blogged (see my post athttps://blog.sstrumello.com/2022/11/cigna-express-scripts-by-insiderx.html for reference) how Cigna ' s Express Scripts was discontinuing the company ' s cash-pay mail order pharmacy by InsideRx (the coupon website/app is owned by Express Scripts). Well, now rival United Healthcare ' s OptumRx is doing the same, effectively shutting down its Optum Store. Have a look at this notice:I know it ' s impossible to read, but the first paragraph reads:" We ' re sad to say that starting June 1st, 2023, you will no longer be able to fill prescriptions through the Optum Store except...
Source: Scott's Web Log - May 2, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Diabetes Mine Express Scripts by InsideRx Healthline Optum Optum Store OptumRx RVO Health LLC United Healthcare Source Type: blogs
Info On What It Costs To Make Insulin API's Offshore (Courtesy of China's Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals Ltd.)
When pharma companies refer to API ' s, they are referring to " Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients " (which is different from what an internet company means when they say API; to internet companies, the acronym API means " Application Programming Interface " ). Regardless, pharma API ' s are commonly made offshore in places like India, Malaysia, China and elsewhere because its cheaper for them and therefore helps their own bottom lines. Its unclear to me exactly how they manage issues including transporting the products across the world for some items which must be temperature-controlled, but if it fattens pharma ' s bottom...
Source: Scott's Web Log - May 1, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Biosimilar biosimilars BLA China COGS FDA Gan & Lee insulin Sandoz Source Type: blogs
Podcast Episode Recommendations: The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health with Mark Cuban and GoodRx Co-Founder Doug Hirsch
The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania (you know, the Colonial-era Ivy League school which has a massive endowment due to the fact that the school began when Pennsylvania was still a colony back in 1740) has a health podcast. Those not in-the-know sometimes mistake University of Pennsylvania for Pennsylvania State University, which is the Keystone State ' s massive public university), so allow me set the record straight on that. The University of Pennsylvania ' s business school known as The Wharton School which is regularly ranked among the best business schools in the country and it has a price-tag to match, al...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 27, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 GoodRx mark cuban Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company podcast episode recommendations The Pulse Wharton Wharton Digital Health Wharton School Source Type: blogs
Podcast Episode Recommendation: The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health with Mark Cuban and GoodRx Co-Founder Doug Hirsch
The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania (you know, the Colonial-era Ivy League school which has a massive endowment due to the fact that the school began when Pennsylvania was still a colony back in 1740) has a health podcast. Those not in-the-know sometimes mistake University of Pennsylvania for Pennsylvania State University, which is the Keystone State ' s massive public university), so allow me set the record straight on that. The University of Pennsylvania ' s business school known as The Wharton School which is regularly ranked among the best business schools in the country and it has a price-tag to match, al...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 27, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 GoodRx mark cuban Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company podcast episode recommendations The Pulse Wharton Wharton Digital Health Wharton School Source Type: blogs
Approaching a Half-Century of Life With Type 1 Diabetes (T1D)
On July 24, 2023, I will mark 47 years of having lived with autoimmune Type 1 diabetes (T1D). I was diagnosed as a seven year old, so not quite fifty years ago, but much closer than I ever really anticipated. When I was diagnosed in 1976, no one told me that I should expect horrific complications or that I ' d die young because threats weren ' t part of the conversation; some may have been due to my age. But there was also no such thing as a certified diabetes educator
in 1976; instead, pediatric nurses instructed patients on how to give
themselves an injection. In fact, scientists had only
proven that Type 1 diabetes h...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 26, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 50 years half century half-century joslin medal Source Type: blogs
South Korea-Based Undbio Co., Ltd. + Proprietary Insulin; Maybe Biosimilars (someday)
On April 13, 2023, a South Korean biopharmaceutical company known as Undbio Co., Ltd.http://undbio.com/eng/ signed a lease with West Virginia University to build what it refers to as an insulin " manufacturing facility " in the city of Morgantown, WV (seehttps://www.wvgazettemail.com/business/undbio-planning-insulin-facility-in-morgantown/article_6b986775-6a2e-5ce5-b312-c423d79cbda2.html for more information). In all likelihood, that will be for what pharma refers to as a " fill& finish " facility, rather than one where temperature-controlled bioreactors are located.Meanwhile, a nonprofit drug company known as Civica, ...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 24, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 morgantown west virginia wv mylan biosimilar insulin undbio Source Type: blogs
" The Second Request " Podcast Episode Recommendation: Spotting Anticompetitive Conduct in Pharma Supply Chain, with 46brooklyn
The Capitol Forum is what I suppose can be called a Washington, DC-based, center-left leaning investigative news organization. In 2017, the website " Talking Biz News " (which is apparently about the news business)https://talkingbiznews.com/media-moves/whats-behind-capitol-forum-and-its-growth-plans/ operated by Chris Roush, who ' s dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University (a university which happens to be a few miles away from where I grew up, so it seemed legitimate to me) described The Capitol Forum this way: " Digging deep into the connection between business and government regulation. "Anyway, The...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 12, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 46Brooklyn Research Antonio Ciaccia drug prices laissez-faire antitrust enforcement Monopoly Problems The Capitol Forum The Second Request podcast Source Type: blogs
" The Second Request " Podcast Episode Request: Spotting Anticompetitive Conduct in Pharma Supply Chain, with 46brooklyn
The Capitol Forum is what I suppose can be called a Washington, DC-based, center-left leaning investigative news organization. In 2017, the website " Talking Biz News " (which is apparently about the news business)https://talkingbiznews.com/media-moves/whats-behind-capitol-forum-and-its-growth-plans/ operated by Chris Roush, who ' s dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University (a university which happens to be a few miles away from where I grew up, so it seemed legitimate to me) described The Capitol Forum this way: " Digging deep into the connection between business and government regulation. "Anyway, The...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 12, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 46Brooklyn Research Antonio Ciaccia drug prices laissez-faire antitrust enforcement Monopoly Problems The Capitol Forum The Second Request podcast Source Type: blogs
Podcast Episode Recommendation: " Do One Better with Alberto Lidji " interview with Sean Doherty, Chairman of the JDRF T1D Fund
So, the podcast known as " Do One Better with Alberto Lidji " is certainly not one I would listen to routinely. (I can ' t even pronounce the guy ' s last name). After all, there are only so many hours in the day one has to listen to the podcasts, and if you ' re drowning in a sea of podcasts, then you ' re not going to ask for someone to bring you even more seawater.But one of the benefits of the ability to " follow " individuals without reciprocity on platforms such as LinkedIn is that provides the ability to follow senior executives from theJDRF T1D Fund (they don ' t know me, and we have few mutual connections, hence t...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 10, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Finn Doherty JDRF T1D Fund podcast Sean Doherty Source Type: blogs
BusinessWeek Says " Why Cheaper Insulin Today Risks Higher Costs Later " . We should want that!
On April 4, 2023,Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine published an article entitled " Why Cheaper Insulin Today Risks Higher Costs Later " (seehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-04/cheaper-insulin-from-lilly-and-sanofi-risks-raising-costs-later for the article). Unfortunately, Americans have grown much too accustomed to seeing prescription drug prices being artificially manipulated from behind-the-scenes by entities who rig the system to line their own pockets that today, we instinctively view higher prices in the future as a direct assault. Don ' t play that game!But if the market was working properly to begi...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 7, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: glucose responsive insulin 2023 Amphastar Biocon bloomberg BusinessWeek Civica insulin prices Lannett Sandoz the Business of Diabetes Source Type: blogs
The Business of Diabetes: 2023 Update on Glucose-Responsive Insulin
My readers may recall back in 2007, I interviewed the CEO of a startup then known as SmartCells, Inc. named Todd Zion (seehttps://blog.sstrumello.com/2007/06/conversation-with-smartcells-ceo-todd.html for my original post). In 2010, the big pharma giant Merck& Company, Inc. acquired SmartCells, Inc. (see my post athttps://blog.sstrumello.com/2010/12/merck-acquires-smartcells-inc.html for my coverage of that). For its part, Merck remained rather tight-lipped about revealing much of anything about that, although it did become the first-ever glucose responsive insulin to complete a clinical trial, which was known Merck ' ...
Source: Scott's Web Log - March 28, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: Eli Lilly and Company Smart Insulin 2023 Merck Novo Nordisk SmartCells Source Type: blogs
