Lilly's Carelessness in Discontinuing 3 mL vials of Humalog Causes Shortages in 10 mL vials of Humalog + Unbranded Lispro
Last week, the JDRF shared newshttps://x.com/JDRF/status/1770848177354137650 in a series of three Tweets about how Eli Lilly& Company, Inc. was reporting that 10 mL vials of Humalog and the company ' s identical, unbranded (meaning Lilly sells it using the generic drug name rather than brand-name Humalog) version of Humalog known as Lilly Insulin Lispro Injection could be facing temporary lack of availability in selected locations around the country. Lilly tried to reassure everyone that it was only a temporary issue. But while Lilly complains it cannot keep up with demand for Mounjaro/Zepbound, it is having its own su...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 9, 2024 Category: Endocrinology Tags: Eli Lilly and Company 2024 Humalog lispro vials Source Type: blogs
Will Americans Get PBM Reform in 2024? Maybe, But Many Things Need to Happen In Order to Get There. On the Upside: Insulin Has Opted Out of PBM Sales.
At the core of this post is a YouTube video which can be viewed in the middle of this blog post. The subject is about whether we ' ll get much-needed legislation passed into law to reform corrupt Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) which we know with absolute certainty were at fault for runaway insulin prices. At least that was true until March 2023, when the three largest insulin manufacturers, starting withLilly, followed byNovo Nordisk and shortly thereafter,Sanofi all announced major insulin list price reductions in the range of 70% to 78%. Think about that for a second: Imagine being able to instantly...
Source: Scott's Web Log - March 17, 2024 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2024 Congress insulin prices PBM rebates reform Source Type: blogs
Will Americans Get PBM Reform in 2024? Maybe, But Many Things Need to Happen I Order to Get There. On the Upside: Insulin Has Opted Out of PBM Sales.
At the core of this post is a YouTube video which can be viewed in the middle of this blog post. The subject is about whether we ' ll get much-needed legislation passed into law to reform corrupt Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) which we know with absolute certainty were at fault for runaway insulin prices. At least that was true until March 2023, when the three largest insulin manufacturers, starting withLilly, followed byNovo Nordisk and shortly thereafter,Sanofi all announced major insulin list price reductions in the range of 70% to 78%. Think about that for a second: Imagine being able to instantly...
Source: Scott's Web Log - March 17, 2024 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2024 Congress insulin prices PBM rebates reform Source Type: blogs
The Business Case for a Biosimilar Company to Bring a Copy of Levemir to Market
My readers may recall that in November 2023, I blogged that Novo Nordisk announced it plans to retire (stop making) its first " Lantus killer " known as Levemir (insulin detemir injection) in the U.S. in 2024 (catch my post at https://blog.sstrumello.com/2023/11/novo-nordisk-to-discontinue-levemir-in.html for more). At the time I learned of the announcement, I was on vacation in Amsterdam, so I just made a note of the development and blogged about it a few weeks later upon my return.Like other patients my age, I have endured the company ' s previous insulin " retirements " . Novo Nordisk ' s time-frame for withdr...
Source: Scott's Web Log - January 25, 2024 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2024 Biosimilar Levemir Novo Nordisk PBM Source Type: blogs
Consider Bypassing Your Health Insurance to Afford Certain Type 1 Diabetes-Related Medicines and Supplies
Since it ' s January (a new year), and about half of all Americans with employer-sponsored healthcare insurance plans have some deductibles to satisfy before their healthcare insurance really kicks-in to cover much of anything and deductibles reset on January 1, I thought perhaps this might be a good time to write about my own experience with high-deductible insurance plans and some intelligent work-arounds which I ' ve discovered to deal with those. Who knows? You might (as I did) find you actually like using a particular brand or variety of insulin which is not " preferred " by your insurance ' s PBM, or maybe you f...
Source: Scott's Web Log - January 11, 2024 Category: Endocrinology Tags: type 1 diabetes 2024 bypass insurance manufacturer coupons PBM ' PBMs unbranded insulin Source Type: blogs
Your Insulin of the Future Could Be " Made in China " if Big PBMs Have a Say in the Matter
Back on June 16, 2022, I published an article on LinkedIn entitled "How the Civica Insulin Announcement May Be Disruptive to the PBM Kickback Scheme" (see the article athttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-civica-insulin-announcement-may-disruptive-pbm-scheme-strumello/ if you wish to read it) which predicted that a growing number of insulin biosimilars whose active pharmaceutical ingredients (API ' s) are cultured in offshore laboratories are forecast to hit the U.S. market in the next few years. According to the FDA and the individual companies whom I also follow on LinkedIn, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) typ...
Source: Scott's Web Log - October 15, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Congress insulin insulin prices lawmakers PBM Pharmacy Benefit Managers Source Type: blogs
Another Three Biosimilar Insulins Planned from Meitheal Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
On September 21, 2023, Chicago-basedMeitheal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (which is a subsidiary of a Chinese parent company named Nanjing King-Friend Biochemical Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) announced an exclusive commercial licensing agreement with a different Chinese company known asTonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. with intent to sell three insulin biosimilars in the U.S. market. The company press release can be seen athttps://www.meithealpharma.com/news/61 while the pharmaceutical industry trade press covered the story athttps://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/licensing-deal-to-bring-three-new...
Source: Scott's Web Log - September 30, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Biosimilar insulin Meitheal Pharmaceuticals Source Type: blogs
Why Amazon Pharmacy's Recent Insulin Move is Helpful, But Not Groundbreaking
On August 15, 2023, Amazon Pharmacy (fka PillPack) announced (seehttps://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-pharmacy-insulin-coupons/ for the announcement) that it would begin automatically applying various manufacturer coupons to more than 15 common insulins and diabetes devices (including Dexcom, which offers a coupon for up to $200 per month athttps://www.dexcom.com/en-us/savings-center-cgm-without-insurance/ even without insurance). So far, no coupons from Abbott on Freestyle Libre 3 sensors, but the longer wear-time of 14-days means those cost about one-third less than Dexcom ' s 10-day Some products, such as bloo...
Source: Scott's Web Log - August 22, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Amazon Amazon Pharmacy coupons insulin prices Source Type: blogs
Podcast Episode Recommendation: Healthy Dose of Dialogue Episode 31 " A Dose of Prescription Drug Disruption "
Today, I am recommending a podcast episode worth listening to. Specifically, it is an episode from June 15, 2022 of the podcast known as " Healthy Dose of Dialogue " which describes its mission to " gather the brightest minds in healthcare to share their unique perspectives on transformative marketplace trends, industry insights, and their vision for the future " .This particular episode (EP31: " A Dose of Prescription Drug Disruption " ) is an interview with the President of CivicaScript LLC, which in case you weren ' t aware of it, is an affiliated business unit of the nonprofit drug company Civica, Inc. The president of...
Source: Scott's Web Log - August 9, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Biosimilar Civica Civica Rx CivicaRx CivicaScript insulin podcast podcast episode recommendations ypsomed Source Type: blogs
Opinion Piece from Pharmacists United for Truth & Transparency ( " PUTT " )
Pharmacists United for Truth& Transparency ( " PUTT " ) is a non-profit advocacy organization founded by independent pharmacists and pharmacy owners devoted to exposing what they describe as anti-competitive tactics deployed by the largest Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs - aka Pharmacy Benefit Companies or PBCs as the trade organization known as the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association or PCMA has tried to rebrand its industry since the acronym PBM has become toxic) recently published an opinion piece with an interesting title: " The Deadliest Addiction in the U.S. Isn ' t What You Think It Is " (read it athttps:...
Source: Scott's Web Log - July 12, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 drug prices PBM Pharmacists United for Truth & Transparency PUTT Source Type: blogs
Navitus 2022 Drug Trend Report
Its been many years since I posted news of a PBM Drug Trend Report. Once upon a time, PBM drug trend reports contained lots of interesting information. However, over time (in 2021, for example, when reports from the preceding year were published), CVS Caremark published only a bare-bones summary, while Prime Therapeutics, MedImpact, and other large PBMs all completelystopped publishing drug trend reports. The reason is basically because its becoming harder and harder for PBMs to present themselves as saving money when the biggest PBMs aren ' t saving any entities any money on prescription drugs anymore (I...
Source: Scott's Web Log - July 5, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2022 2023 Drug Trend Report Navitus Navitus Health Solutions PBM Source Type: blogs
Like Don Quixote Chasing Windmills, I Aim to See Financial Remediation for Patients Still Suffering in a Predatory U.S Healthcare System
Sometimes, I feel (if you pardon the metaphor) a bit like Don Quixote chasing windmills with my efforts to see true financial remediation introduced in the predatory U.S. healthcare " system " (and I am glad to see that the term " predatory " is now being used by a growing number of medical doctors, which I think is great). I envision a type of financial remediation whereby patients will be able to get access to the care they need without having to face financial predators trying to pick their pockets with illegal discount bribes standing in the way of their getting access to things they need like insulin, CGM senors ...
Source: Scott's Web Log - June 25, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 CGM Formulary Exclusion insulin PBM Source Type: blogs
What happens when Rx price bubbles (such as on insulin) burst?
In the first half of 2023, Americans witnessed evidence of a rather fundamental shift in the manner pharma had traditionally opted to commercialize selected prescription drugs. Specifically, in March 2023,Lilly,Novo Nordisk andSanofi each announced they planned to slash insulin list prices for insulin. To do so, they would disintermediate PBMs from the transaction and " opt out " of the PBM commercialization channel.The decision wasn ' t really all that difficult; for years branded insulin-makers had been complaining that PBMs and other drug distribution system entities had been gobbling up an ever-larger share of their re...
Source: Scott's Web Log - June 19, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Source Type: blogs
Sandoz/Gan & Lee Now Has Applications for Glargine, Lispro and Aspart Insulin Biosimilars on File with FDA, Expect them to come to market in early 2024.
Five years ago, back on December 19, 2018, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis Pharma AG quietly issued a press release (seehttps://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/12/19/1669194/0/en/Sandoz-enters-into-commercialization-and-supply-agreement-for-insulin-biosimilars-anticipating-growing-demand-as-diabetes-burden-rises.html for the release itself) on behalf of the company ' s business unit known as Sandoz. Specifically, Novartis said that its Sandoz generics unit planned to introduce biosimilars, or near-copy, versions of Sanofi ' s Lantus (glargine), Novo Nordisk ' s Novolog (aspart), and Eli Lilly ' s Humalog (lispr...
Source: Scott's Web Log - June 16, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Biosimilar biosimilars Gan & Lee insulin Sandoz Source Type: blogs
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
