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Good morning and glad Thursday! Yesterday it was introduced that my colleague Usha Lee McFarling won the 2024 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. I’m genuinely so honored to work in the identical newsroom as Usha. Her tales — learn all of them — have elucidated so many under-covered, unresolved racial well being inequities inside in our well being care system.
Might the GLP-1 social gathering finish for Hims & Hers?
You in all probability know the model Hims & Hers. Particularly should you dwell in a metropolis like New York, the place the corporate’s advertisements for weight reduction medication with “the identical energetic ingredient as Ozempic and Wegovy” are plastered throughout subway partitions. It’s one of many largest publicly traded telehealth corporations within the nation, providing compounded GLP-1s in additional than 30 states and spending almost $145 million in a single quarter on advertising and marketing.
For now, the corporate can legally promote these copycat variations of the medication as a result of there’s a scarcity of the originals. However “because the brand-name GLP-1 medication come off of the scarcity record, I’d anticipate this to be a scorching space for litigation,” well being regulation professor Anjali Deshmukh mentioned to STAT’s Katie Palmer and Nick Florko.
There are some authorized maneuvers that would assist the corporate proceed promoting compounded medication even after the scarcity. However challenges from producers Lilly and Novo, or a crackdown by the FDA, might convey the social gathering to an finish. Learn extra from Katie and Nick in regards to the firm’s plans shifting ahead and the obstacles that will stand in its means.
Kidney donor deaths are decrease than ever
Between 1993 and 2022, greater than 164,500 folks donated kidneys. In all that point, solely 36 donors died inside three months of the process. The dangers have all the time been low, however new analysis revealed yesterday in JAMA discovered that the danger for donors has drastically declined over the past three many years.
Analyzing nationwide transplant registry information, researchers discovered that 13 donors died within the first 10 years of the research, 18 within the subsequent decade, and simply 5 folks in the latest decade. It’s powerful to measure relative threat with such a low variety of deaths, however the researchers discovered no statistically important variations when it got here to age or race. Mortality was additionally constant amongst folks with totally different BMIs.
What spurred the advance in survival? The research authors pointed to enhancements in donor choice, higher care pre- and post-operation, and improved surgical strategies as potential influencing components.
Trans and nonbinary folks give start, too
Gavin Fraser all the time dreamed of getting kids — a lot in order that they assumed they have to be a cisgender girl. Who else would need so badly to hold and start a toddler? However they aren’t cisgender, one thing they solely realized lengthy after giving start.
Now, Fraser needs they may have skilled being pregnant and childbirth whereas residing brazenly as a nonbinary transgender man, they write in a First Opinion essay. They’re not alone on this need, but it surely’s usually a troublesome journey. Birthing trans and gender various individuals are nearly all the time excluded from necessary conversations about entry to high-quality, compassionate prenatal care.
Learn extra in Fraser’s essay about bringing trans and gender various folks into “maternal” well being.
Three cardiology research to look at at an annual assembly in Europe
The annual assembly of the European Society of Cardiology begins on Friday. These shows sometimes occur earlier than official peer overview, however these research caught our eye:
- Some extent for all or nothing pondering: In a French study analyzing a world database of greater than 32,000 folks with secure coronary artery illness, sufferers who give up smoking at any level after their analysis lower their threat of a serious occasion nearly in half. However those that merely lowered their smoking noticed restricted advantages.
- Some extent towards endometriosis: Alternatively, ladies with this painful, underdiagnosed reproductive dysfunction had 20% larger threat of coronary heart assault or stroke in comparison with different ladies, in response to a Danish study matching greater than 60,000 ladies with endometriosis to about 242,032 controls.
- A spherical of applause for sleeping in on the weekends: People who find themselves sleep disadvantaged throughout the week however “catch up” over the weekend could also be decreasing their threat of coronary heart illness by as much as 20%. That’s in response to a British study of greater than 90,000 people who find themselves a part of the UK Biobank.
A deeper take a look at Eli Lilly’s lauded announcement on cheaper weight problems medication
And in additional GLP-1 information: Eli Lilly garnered widespread reward Tuesday for launching discounted variations of its blockbuster weight problems drug Zepbound. It used to solely be obtainable as an injectable pen on the steep record value of $1,060 per thirty days. Now, starter doses in vials shall be obtainable at nearly half the worth.
Within the firm’s press launch, one affected person group known as it “an modern resolution that brings us nearer to creating equitable care a actuality.” However the actuality is extra difficult, STAT’s Elaine Chen stories. On the identical day as these discounted vials grew to become obtainable, the corporate elevated the worth of the pens for individuals who have business insurance coverage however no protection for the therapy. This information wasn’t within the press launch, however somewhat in a change to the effective print on Lilly’s webpages for the financial savings coupons that these sufferers use. Learn extra on the caveats.
What we’re studying
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Nudge idea is making inroads in well being care, to blended outcomes, Undark
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With solely gloves to guard them, farmworkers say they have a tendency sick cows amid hen flu, KFF Health News
- Invisible within the information: Broad ‘Asian American’ class obscures well being disparities, STAT
- Surgeon Common: Mother and father are at wits’ finish. We will do higher, New York Times
Correction: Wednesday’s challenge misstated what number of circumstances of Triple E have been confirmed within the U.S. this 12 months. The CDC has confirmed 5 circumstances in 5 states: NH, VT, MA, NJ, and WI.
