Sales continue to soar for all the weight loss drugs in 2023. Earlier this month, Novo Nordisk told the CBS news program 60 Minutes that the company can finally supply all dose levels of Wegovy. Social media and celebrities drive demand for a drug whose side effects are not yet completely known and cost over $1000 a month.
Category Archive: Bad practices
Based on the available data, I’m not clear and skeptical at this moment,” said Yale professor Reshma Ramachandran. “I would have a lot of reservations about prescribing this. “I do think one of the things that have given us a lot of pause…is the risk and the death issue. Nobody wants to be the clinician prescribing a drug that could potentially harm our patients,” she added.” That is just the tip of the problem.
American healthcare is too profitable. It’s advantageous because Americans don’t take care of themselves and because there are too many companies between patients and doctors.
TikTok is full of influencers showing off their stunning before-and-after shots and their weight loss after using the new class of weight loss drugs, but too many patients see this as a “quick fix” without the possible downsides.
Sometimes things happen that are beyond human decency. When these things happen and it causes others to lose their lives, we must learn to act to punish those responsible and ensure it never happens again. For more than two years, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis has been investigating the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic to ensure the American people receive a full accounting of what went wrong and to determine what corrective steps are necessary to ensure our nation is better prepared for any future public health crisis.
“We are hearing about it more and more,” said Jacqueline Reid, a government research analyst at the Office of Inspector General who has analyzed Medicare Advantage overbilling. It’s costing us billions and continues unchecked because Medicare has become too big. This is a summary of an article from the NY Times.
A federal appeals court rejected Pfizer’s challenge to a U.S. anti-kickback law that the drugmaker said prevented it from helping heart failure patients, many with low incomes, afford the medicine that costs $225,000 annually. For many, these coupons represent the difference between filling a prescription and going without lifesaving care, but there is a lot more here than just a co-pay coupon.
In 2020, over 75% of AbbVie’s’ sales were made to American consumers, yet only 1% of AbbVie’s’ income was reported in the United States for tax purposes. AbbVie’s’ ability to exploit subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes on U.S. prescription drug sales signals that big pharma will do anything to avoid hurting profits.