Medicare drug price negotiations what’s ahead in 2024

Activists protest the price of prescription drug costs in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) building on October 06, 2022 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images U.S. patients and drugmakers will get a first glimpse of how much Medicare can negotiate down drug prices in 2024, setting the … Read more

Obesity and Alzheimer’s drugs pack one-two punch to lift Eli Lilly

Investor optimism for Eli Lilly ‘s diabetes and obesity treatments in 2023 lifted the stock to its seventh annual gain in a row. In the new year, it should be the same old story. Shares of Eli Lilly have taken a breather over the past three months, as investors book profits in the top performer … Read more

Novo Nordisk sues pharmacies over impure Wegovy, Ozempic dupes

A 0.25 mg injection pen of Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy is shown in this photo in Oslo, Norway, on Aug. 31, 2023. Victoria Klesty | Reuters Novo Nordisk on Thursday said it sued two compounding pharmacies in Florida for allegedly selling impure and “potentially unsafe” drugs claiming to contain semaglutide, the active ingredient … Read more

Why Pfizer’s stumble in the obesity market is a boon for Eli Lilly

Pfizer (PFE) has suffered another setback in its efforts to develop a weight-loss pill — and that’s good news for Club holding Eli Lilly (LLY) as it looks to maintain an edge in the fast-growing obesity-treatment market. Pfizer said Friday it will discontinue its twice-daily weight-loss pill, danuglipron, after patients in a mid-stage trial experienced … Read more

Pfizer to discontinue twice-daily version of weight loss pill

Pfizer on Friday said it would stop developing the twice-daily version of its experimental weight loss pill after obese patients taking the drug lost significant weight but had trouble tolerating the drug in a mid-stage clinical study.  The drugmaker observed high rates of adverse side effects, which were mostly mild and gastrointestinal, among patients. A … Read more

Pfizer weight loss pill joins list of obesity drug flops

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images Pfizer’s twice-daily version of its experimental weight loss pill has now joined a long list of other scrapped drugs that aimed to treat obesity but came with unintended consequences.  The drugmaker on Friday said it will stop developing the twice-daily treatment, danuglipron, after obese patients taking the drug … Read more

Eli Lilly weight loss drug Zepbound available at U.S. pharmacies

The FDA approves Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, a weight loss drug similar to Ozempic and Wegovy. Courtesy: Eli Lilly Eli Lilly on Tuesday said its recently approved weight loss treatment Zepbound is now available at pharmacies across the U.S., serving as an alternative to rival obesity drugs such as Wegovy that are facing supply issues.  Zepbound … Read more

Free ChatGPT may incorrectly answer drug questions, study says

Harun Ozalp | Anadolu | Getty Images The free version of ChatGPT may provide inaccurate or incomplete responses — or no answer at all — to questions related to medications, which could potentially endanger patients who use OpenAI’s viral chatbot, a new study released Tuesday suggests. Pharmacists at Long Island University who posed 39 questions … Read more

CVS to change how it prices prescription drugs

A person walks by a CVS pharmacy store in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 15, 2021. Andrew Kelly | Reuters CVS Health on Tuesday said it will revamp how it prices prescription drugs and scrap a complex model that typically sets how much pharmacies get reimbursed and what patients pay for those medications. The new … Read more

AbbVie to acquire Cerevel Therapeutics for $8.7 billion

AbbVie on Wednesday said it will acquire neuroscience drugmaker Cerevel Therapeutics for roughly $8.7 billion.  Under the terms of the deal, AbbVie will pay $45 per share for Cerevel. AbbVie said it expects to complete the acquisition in the middle of 2024.  Shares of Cerevel jumped 16% after the close Wednesday to nearly $43 per … Read more