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Good morning and happy Thursday! Yesterday it was announced that my colleague Usha Lee McFarling won the Victor Cohn Prize in 2024 for excellence in medical scientific reporting. I am truly honored to work in the same newsroom as Usha. Her stories – read them all – have illuminated so many under-researched, unresolved racial health disparities within our healthcare system.
Could the GLP-1 party end for Hims & Hers?
You probably know the Hims & Hers brand. Especially if you live in a city like New York, where the company’s advertisements for weight loss drugs with “the same active ingredient as Ozempic and Wegovy” are plastered all over the subway walls. It is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded telehealth companies, offering composite GLP-1s in more than 30 states and spending nearly $145 million on marketing in a single quarter.
For now, the company can legally sell these copycat versions of the drugs because there is a shortage of the originals. But “as the brand-name GLP-1 drugs come off the shortage list, I would expect this to be a hot potato for litigation,” health law professor Anjali Deshmukh told STAT’s Katie Palmer and Nick Florko.
There are some legal maneuvers that could help the company continue selling compounded drugs even after the shortage. But challenges from manufacturers Lilly and Novo, or a crackdown from the FDA, could bring the party to an end. Read more from Katie and Nick about the company’s plans for the future and the obstacles that may stand in the way of the company.
The number of kidney donor deaths is lower than ever
More than 164,500 people donated kidneys between 1993 and 2022. In all that time, only 36 donors died within three months of the procedure. The risks have always been low, but new research was published yesterday in JAMA showed that the risk for donors has decreased drastically over the past thirty years.
Analyzing national transplant registry data, researchers found that 13 donors died in the first 10 years of the study, 18 in the next decade, and only 5 people in the most recent decade. It’s difficult to measure relative risk with such a low number of deaths, but the researchers found no statistically significant differences when it came to age or race. Mortality was also consistent among people with different BMIs.
What drove the improvement in survival? The study authors pointed to improvements in donor selection, better care before and after surgery and improved surgical techniques as potential influencing factors.
Trans and non-binary people also give birth
Gavin Fraser always dreamed of having children – so much so that they assumed they had to be a cisgender woman. Who else would want to carry and give birth to a child so much? But they are not cisgender, something they didn’t realize until long after giving birth.
Now Fraser wishes they could have experienced pregnancy and childbirth while living openly as a non-binary transgender man, they write in a First Opinion essay. They are not alone in this desire, but it is often a difficult journey. Birth-transgender and gender-diverse people are almost always excluded from important conversations about access to quality, compassionate prenatal care.
Read more in Fraser’s essay on bringing trans and gender diverse people into ‘maternal’ health.
Three cardiology studies to watch at an annual meeting in Europe
The annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology starts on Friday. These presentations usually take place before the official peer review, but these studies caught our attention:
- A point for all or nothing thinking: In French study Analyzing an international database of more than 32,000 people with stable coronary artery disease, patients who stopped smoking at some point after their diagnosis nearly halved their risk of a serious event. But those who simply cut back on smoking saw limited benefits.
- A point against endometriosis: On the other hand, women with this painful, underdiagnosed reproductive disorder had a 20% higher risk of heart attack or stroke compared to other women, according to a Danish researcher. study matching more than 60,000 women with endometriosis with approximately 242,032 controls.
- A round of applause for sleeping in on the weekend: People who are sleep deprived during the week, but ‘catch up’ on it during the weekend, can reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 20%. That’s what a Brit says study of more than 90,000 people who are part of the UK Biobank.
A deeper look at Eli Lilly’s lauded announcement on cheaper obesity drugs
And in more GLP-1 news, Eli Lilly drew praise Tuesday for launching discounted versions of its blockbuster obesity drug Zepbound. Previously, it was only available as an injectable pen at the steep list price of $1,060 per month. Now, starting doses will be available in vials for almost half the price.
In the company’s press release, a patient group called it “an innovative solution that brings us closer to achieving equitable care.” But the reality is more complicated, reports STAT’s Elaine Chen. On the same day these discounted vials became available, the company increased the price of the pens for people who have commercial insurance but no coverage for the treatment. This news was not included in the press release, but rather in a change to the fine print on Lilly’s web pages for the savings coupons these patients use. Read more about the caveats.
What we read
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Nudge theory is gaining ground in healthcare, with mixed results Dark
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With only gloves to protect them, farm workers say they are tending sick cows during bird flu. KFF Health News
- Invisible in the data: Broad category ‘Asian American’ obscures health disparities, STAT
- Surgeon General: Parents are at their wits’ end. We can do better, New York Times
Correction: Wednesday’s issue incorrectly stated how many cases of Triple E have been confirmed in the US this year. The CDC has confirmed five cases in five states: NH, VT, MA, NJ and WI.