The Money ’ s in the Wrong Place. How to Fund Primary Care
By MATTHEW HOLT
I was invited on the Health Tech Talk Show by Kat McDavitt and Lisa Bari and I kinda ranted (go to 37.16 here) about why we don’t have primary care, and where we should find the money to fix it. I finally got around to writing it up. It’s a rant but a rant with a point!
We’re spending way too much money on stuff that is the wrong thing.
30 years ago, I was taught that we were going to have universal health care reform. And then we were going to have capitated at-risk entities. then below that, you have all these tech enabled services, which are going to make all this stuff work an...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 5, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Matthew Holt ACA ACO CVS FQHCs Health Systems hedge funds Hospitals Medisync primary care Walgreens Walmart 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
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 25th 2023
This study generates a comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic atlas of human atherosclerosis including 118,578 high-quality cells from atherosclerotic coronary and carotid arteries. By performing systematic benchmarking of integration methods, we mitigated data overcorrection while separating major cell lineages. Notably, we define cell subtypes that have not been previously identified from individual human atherosclerosis scRNA-seq studies.
Besides characterizing granular cell-type diversity and communication, we leverage this atlas to provide insights into smooth muscle cell (SMC) modulation. We integrate genome...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 24, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Modeling the Financials of a Drug to Treat Aging
We live in the world in which the regulatory costs imposed on the development of new medicine are enormous. This leads to centralization and regulatory capture. Only the largest entities, the Big Pharma companies, have the funds needed to satisfy the demands of regulators. These companies exist in synergy with the regulators, guiding the regulators (and the politicians backing them) to ensure that (a) their revenue streams are large and stable, and (b) there are fewer challenges to those revenue streams. Big Pharma entities are easily viewed through a cynical lens because their "treating the world, improving lives" rhetori...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 19, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Longevity Industry 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
Free Download of The Capitol Forum's Report: " Exclusive Drug Dealing: Anticompetitive Practices in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain "
In 2020, I wrote a blog post entitled " It ' s the Rx rebates, stupid! " (seehttps://blog.sstrumello.com/2020/09/its-rx-rebates-stupid.html for the post) in which I revealed the reason everyone was overpaying for insulin was because of rebating paid by insulin-makers to secure PBM formulary placement. Novo Nordisk revealed to its investors that it was spending 74% of its gross U.S. sales in the form of legally-exempted rebate kickbacks paid to PBMs. The good news is thanks to a series of actions by a number of different parties, the insulin PBM rebate price bubble finally burst whenLilly, followed byNovo Nordisk and thenSa...
Source: Scott's Web Log - June 11, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Exclusive Drug Dealing: Anticompetitive Practices in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain report The Capitol Forum 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
Let ’s Finish The Job
BY MIKE MAGEE
In President Biden’s State of the Union Address, the most oft repeated phrase was “Let’s Finish The Job!” This came as part of an appeal for partnership as well as an assertion that in his first two years as President much had been accomplished.
Several days later, as if on cue, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), joint chairs of the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, announced that two bipartisan pieces of legislation focused on reducing the price of drugs to consumers had passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Both bil...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 16, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act Biden Mike Magee state of the union Source Type: blogs
Matthew ’s health care tidbits: Drug prices
Each week I’ve been adding a brief tidbits section to the THCB Reader, our weekly newsletter that summarizes the best of THCB that week (Sign up here!). Then I had the brainwave to add them to the blog. They’re short and usually not too sweet! –Matthew Holt
For my health care tidbits this week, I am going to talk drug pricing. Anyone who gets basically any health policy newsletter has seen some of the cash PhRMA has splashed trying to make it seem as though the American public is terrified of drug price controls. But as Michael Millenson on a recent THCB Gang pointed out, when Kaiser Health News asked the questio...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 30, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Matthew Holt Pharmaceuticals Drug Pricing KHN Source Type: blogs
The Humira Patent Thicket and the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine
Ryan Knox (Yale Law School), Gregory Curfman, The Humira Patent Thicket and the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine, SSRN: Humira (adalimumab) is among the best-selling drugs in the United States and around the world. Even though the core patent for Humira expired in... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - March 20, 2021 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
Early, tight control of Crohn ’s disease may have lasting benefits
The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a remarkable organ: it resides on the inside of our bodies, but is regularly in contact with the outside world by virtue of what we ingest. It is quite incredible that the immune cells of the GI tract are not activated more regularly by the many foreign products it encounters every day. Only when the GI tract encounters an intruder that risks causing disease do the immune cells of the GI tract spring into action.
That is, of course, under normal circumstances. In people with Crohn’s disease, the normally tolerant immune cells of the GI tract are activated without provocation, and this a...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 16, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Sarah Flier, MD Tags: Digestive Disorders Source Type: blogs
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Dismisses Antitrust Case Challenging Patent Thicket (Humira)
Michael A. Carrier (Rutgers), The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Dismisses Antitrust Case Challenging Patent Thicket (Humira), e-Competitions (2020, Forthcoming): Whether behavior relating to a patent thicket presents an antitrust issue is a nuanced question. But... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - October 5, 2020 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
Harvard Health Ad Watch: An arthritis ad in 4 parts
Perhaps you’ve grown as weary as I have of repeated arthritis ads. They appear in frequent rotation on television, online, and in magazines, promoting Enbrel, Humira, Otezla, Xeljanz, and others.
If you’ve actually read or listened to these ads, you might have felt perplexed at certain points. Here’s a quick rundown on what they’re saying — and not saying — in one of those ads.
“The clock is ticking”
Part 1: A teakettle whistles on the stove and a disembodied voice speaks as this ad for Humira opens. “This is your wakeup call. If you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month the cloc...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 29, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Arthritis Bones and joints Health Inflammation Source Type: blogs
Harvard Health AdWatch: An arthritis ad in 4 parts
Perhaps you’ve grown as weary as I have of repeated arthritis ads. They appear in frequent rotation on television, online, and in magazines, promoting Enbrel, Humira, Otezla, Xeljanz, and others.
If you’ve actually read or listened to these ads, you might have felt perplexed at certain points. Here’s a quick rundown on what they’re saying — and not saying — in one of those ads.
“The clock is ticking”
Part 1: A teakettle whistles on the stove and a disembodied voice speaks as this ad for Humira opens. “This is your wakeup call. If you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month the cloc...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 29, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Arthritis Bones and joints Health Inflammation Source Type: blogs
Thou Shalt Not Try to Outsmart Me
By HANS DUVEFELT, MD
Medical researchers and their groupies – early adopters, thoughtleaders, those easily influenced or whatever you want to call them – never seem to learn that when you try to outsmart Mother Nature or Our Heavenly Father, whichever appeals more to your world view, you usually get your hand slapped.
When I was a resident (1981-1984), I got penalized if I didn’t offer postmenopausal women estrogen-progesterone replacement therapy because it seemed obvious that if women with endogenous estrogen didn’t get many strokes or heart attacks and women without estrogen did, all we needed to do was ma...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 20, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Physicians Primary Care Hans Duvefelt Source Type: blogs
