Ozempic and yogurt, a Zepbound shortage, and Costco gets in on weight loss drugs: Pharma news round up
Plus, Bernie Sanders wants a word with Novo Nordisk, and the U.K. will give away thousands of artificial pancreases
Danone CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique said surging demand for weight loss drugs could help the French yogurt maker. The Food and Drug Administration officially declared a shortage of Zepbound. And Costco is offering members prescriptions to weight loss drugs via its healthcare partner Sesame.
Check out those and more pharma news highlights.
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Unlike many other food executives, Danone CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique is optimistic about what the the skyrocketing demand for GLP-1 weight loss drugs could mean for the French yogurt company.
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Eli Lilly’s popular weight loss drug Zepbound has joined its competitor, Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, in officially being hit by a shortage. The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that two doses of the drug, along with some doses of the company’s diabetes medication Mounjaro, are in limited supply.
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Costco, the membership warehouse club known for its $1.50 hot dogs and $2,000 gold bars, is now offering its members prescriptions to Ozempic, Wegovy, and other weight loss drugs.
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The National Health Service in England will give out thousands of artificial pancreas systems to patients living with Type 1 diabetes, the government agency announced today.
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Sales of a new class of weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s have transformed Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk into the most valuable pharmaceutical companies in the world. Eli Lilly is now the world’s ninth largest company by market capitalization at $777 billion. But the high demand has also made it hard for some patients to have their prescriptions filled.
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Novo Nordisk is facing two-pronged pressure from lawmakers and patient advocates to make its popular diabetes medication Ozempic more affordable. The calls come on the heels of a recent study that found it costs less than $5 to produce a month’s supply of Ozempic.