The Business of Diabetes: CVS Caremark's Salvo in Biosimilar Insulin for 2017
Its already mid-2016, and for nearly the past decade, I ' ve been pushing for so-called " biosimilars " or " follow-on biologics " like insulin to be legalized and then introduced in the U.S. (I first investigated this issue back in 2006, and published anarticle on it in January 2007). The reality is that without any form of generic competition, prices continue to rise with absolutely nothing to stop them. In recent years, there have been some hyper-aggressive price-increases from the insulin oligopoly, especially within the last 3 years or so. The reason: they all KNOW that their insulin analog patents are about...
Source: Scott's Web Log - August 5, 2016 Category: Endocrinology Tags: Biosimilar insulin Lantus Lilly Merck Source Type: blogs
The Business of Diabetes: CVS Caremark's Salvo in Biosimilar Insulin for 2017
Its already mid-2016, for nearly the past decade, I ' ve been pushing for so-called " biosimilars " or " follow-on biologics " like insulin to be legalized and then introduced in the U.S. (I first investigated this issue back in 2006, and published anarticle on it in January 2007). The reality is that without any form of generic competition, prices continue to rise with absolutely nothing to stop them. In recent years, there have been some hyper-aggressive price-increases from the insulin oligopoly, especially within the last 3 years or so. The reason: they all KNOW that their insulin analog patents are about to ...
Source: Scott's Web Log - August 5, 2016 Category: Endocrinology Tags: Biosimilar insulin Lantus Lilly Merck Source Type: blogs
Take This Diabetes and Shove It
An Ad, to Be Placed on Freecycle or the Giveaway Section of CraigslistFree to a Good [or Bad] Home - Type 1 Diabetes (Philadelphia or Anywhere)The beta cells in my pancreas quit working after 8 short years. My immune system attacked them, and instead of going back to doing their f**king job, they decided to just sit and panhandle around the Islets of Langerhans, like that's some kind of vacation for them. I've tried to give diabetes a chance for 25 years, but you know what? I'm done.Surely there is some soul out there who would like to adopt my diabetes and give it a good home. Or maybe you know an unsuspecting Men's Right...
Source: Dorkabetic - May 20, 2015 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Hannah McDonald Source Type: blogs
NovoNordisk NovoLog FlexTouch and Levemir FlexTouch Pen Injectors FDA Cleared
Novo Nordisk won FDA approval of its new FlexTouch insulin injection pens prefilled with either NovoLog (insulin aspart) or Levemir (insulin detemir). The FlexTouch features variable dose selection for anywhere between 1 and 80 units, while the button remains as easy to push for smaller injections as for larger ones. Each pen holds 300 units of insulin and is compatible with both NovoFine and the newer NovoTwist needles.
The new pens will be available in the U.S. next year and in Europe they’ve been approved since 2011.
Press release: Novo Nordisk Receives U.S. FDA approval for NovoLog® FlexTouch® and Leve...
Source: Medgadget - November 4, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Editors Tags: Medicine Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
Oh, snap! No Snap for me!
I wore the final Snap body I was given as part of my review to nearly the last drop of insulin. With 2.3 units of insulin left in the penfill, and stranded in Lake Havasu, Arizona, in 117 degree heat (a long story I don’t want to talk about), I threw in the towel and got my tslim back out.The fancy-pants touch screen pump had been placed in “stasis” weeks before to keep it from driving me bonkers alarming all the time. But now, with a potential diabetes emergency looming, I couldn’t get the little f.er to come back out of its induced coma.Yeah. I had a backup flex pen of Humalog with me.And, yeah, I had a vial of N...
Source: LifeAfterDx--The Guardian Chronicles - September 2, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Wil Source Type: blogs
Should I wish upon a star, I would wish for…
I like a lot of things about the Snap. But are there things it needs to be better? Damn straight. It needs:To be able to talk to the Dex G-4 CGM transmitter.It also needs a meter that talks to it. It would be even better if several different meters talked to it. It needs to accept a Novolog penfill. Humalog is “off formulary” on many health plans. Including mine.It needs download capability to a computer. Not for the pumpers, we never bother, but our educators and doctors like to do it.It needs a brown leather belt case.All things I’m told Asante is working on. Except the brown leather case.I also wish they’d...
Source: LifeAfterDx--The Guardian Chronicles - August 16, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Wil Source Type: blogs
I be, you be, we all be IOB… now I need to pee… (sorry, rhymes tend to run amok)
Now back on Day Two of this little project I mentioned that the Snap pump lets you choose how you want it to track insulin on board, called IOB, or sometimes “active insulin.” And I suggested that you should all send thank you cards to Asante for doing this, and promised to talk in more detail about this feature later. So today is later! But before we get into the details, we need to spend a minute making sure everyone understands what IOB is all about. And it’s all about pancakes.More specifically, it’s about stacks of pancakes.Yep, that American gut-busting tradition of piling good things on top of each other is ...
Source: LifeAfterDx--The Guardian Chronicles - August 2, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Wil Source Type: blogs
So WTF is a Snap?
The Snap is the new-kid-on-the-block insulin pump. It’s also a whole new kind of insulin pump. Which, I guess, means I’d better review the old kinds of insulin pumps to get everyone on the same page.A traditional insulin pump is the world’s most expensive insulin syringe. It’s a box that holds three days’ worth of insulin and enough computing power to fly three guys to the moon and back half a dozen times. The devices cost thousands ($6-10K) and have a wide range of features that most users never use. That’s the “durable” part. Inside the pump is a short, fat, motor-driven syringe that’s filled with insul...
Source: LifeAfterDx--The Guardian Chronicles - July 16, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Wil Source Type: blogs
D-Blog Week, Day 1: Share & Don't Share
It's D-Blog Week...join your favorite diabetes bloggers as we write about/share/mouth off about different diabetes-related topics all week. Links and learn more at: Bitter-sweet Diabetes!Monday: Often our health care team only sees us for about 15 minutes several times a year, and they might not have a sense of what our lives are really like. Today, let’s pretend our medical team is reading our blogs. What do you wish they could see about your and/or your loved one's daily life with diabetes? On the other hand, what do you hope they don't see?1.) Today, I left my insulin pump at home. I comm...
Source: Dorkabetic - May 13, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Hannah McDonald Source Type: blogs
Sorry Charlie! Novo's Race with Insulin "Chain E-mail" Sweepstakes Campaign is Spam
I once characterized a @Racewithinsulin Levemir branded tweet as "Sleazy Twitter Spam" (search Google on "race with insulin spam" and you'll find this post). That got a lot of comments from people arguing that the tweet wasn't technically "spam."Today, however, I learned about the new Novo Nordisk Race With Insulin sweepstakes campaign that is truly a spam e-mail campaign. In fact, it is a "chain e-mail spam campaign," which is something I've never seen before.As explained in this PMLive article, "the campaign features a website www.RaceWithinsulin.com hosting a competition inviting entrants to build a 'pit crew' by e...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - April 25, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Charlie Kimball eMarketing Novo Nordisk Spam DTC Advertising diabetes Source Type: blogs
Humalog vs. Novolog.
It wasn't until recently that I started thinking about building up a tolerance to insulin. Do you build up a chemical familiarity, a resistance of sorts, to a drug after taking it for ... oh, say a few decades? Do PWD eventually become the Dread Pirate Roberts, building up a tolerance to iocane powder? "I realize this is probably ridiculous, and I'm sure there aren't any studies on this," I said to my doctor the other week. "But it has prompted me to want to try a different kind of fast acting insulin, to see if I have better results. Is that something I'm able to do, to have a script...
Source: Six Until Me. - February 27, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Diabetes Products Source Type: blogs
Severed lifeline
[Note to readers: this little miss-adventure happened, was written up, and scheduled before the BIG event I posted about on Monday. In keeping with my New Year’s Resolution to post every Wednesday, I’ve decided to go ahead and let it run, but just know it is out of sequence and happened before the killer low.]I was freezing my ass off. Literally. And my hands. And my nose. And my toes. I could see my breath, cigarette smoke-like, hanging in the frigid air.No, I wasn’t out on some Artic adventure, I was in my frickin’ office. The janitor had unplugged the heater. The outside temp was 1° Fahrenheit. The inside temp ...
Source: LifeAfterDx--The Guardian Chronicles - January 30, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Wil Source Type: blogs
The longest yard
OK. Technically, it isn’t a yard. It’s 43 inches. So it’s a yard-and-a-fifth. That sounds more like something you’d order at an Irish drive-thru package liquor store than something that deals with diabetes, doesn’t it?But what I’m talking about this morning is the length of my infusion pump tubing. I prefer sets with long tubes and short 90-degree cannulas. When it comes to cannula length, if you’re lean like me, or athletic and muscular (not like me), then you should use a short cannula—or an angled set. It you are normal, fluffy, or King Size, then you should use the longer cannulas. But when it comes to ...
Source: LifeAfterDx--The Guardian Chronicles - January 16, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Wil Source Type: blogs
