Month: February 2025

In a pharmacy, boxes with Ozempic and Wegovy from Novo Nordisk can be seen.

Hollie Adams | Reuters

The long -time lack of us Novo Nordisk'S Blockbuster Weight Loss Injection Wegovy and Diabetes Treatment Ozempic will be solved after more than two years, said the Food and Drug Administration on Friday.

The decision of the FDA will threaten the ability to improve pharmacies in order to make far cheaper versions of the interior versions of the interior versions in the next few months. Many patients were based on non -approved versions of wide houses and Ozempic, since the compounding pharmacies are allowed to produce versions of branded medication in short supply.

Novo Nordisk's share rose by 5%on Friday. Meanwhile shares of Hims & HeinAa Telehealth Company, which offered the Wegovy and Ozempic, who bumped together, fell by about 20%.

The active ingredient in the injectable medication of Novo Nordisk, Semaglutid, has been lacking in the USA since 2022 after demand has been raised. Novo Nordisk and his rivals have forced this Eli Lilly In order to invest their respective weight loss and diabetes drugs intensively in order to expand their manufacturing footprints -it can pay off.

The FDA found that Novo Nordisk's offer and manufacturing capacity for semaglutidinjection can now meet the current and forecast demand in the United States. Chain to pharmacies.

“We are pleased that the FDA has declared that the supply of the only real Semaglutid medication approved by the FDA has been solved,” said Dave Moore, Executive Vice President of the US Operations and Global Business Development.

He added that “nobody affects their health due to misinformations and has to grab fake or illegitimate knockout medication that represent the patient considerable security risks.”

The FDA announced the FDA only a few months after the agency has taken over the lack of Tirzidatide – the active ingredient in Eli Lilly's weight loss -injection zepbound and diabetes counterpart Mounjaro.

The decision of the FDA on Friday could position Novo Nordisk better in order to compete with Eli Lilly on the booming market for weight loss medicines, which, according to some analysts, could be worth more than $ 150 billion per year.

Threat for increased medication

The decision of the agency, which is based on a comprehensive analysis, essentially marks the end of a period in which composite pharmacies cannot create, distribute, distribute or issue versions of Semaglutide, without being contrary to violations of the lack of treatment in connection with violations place.

Compounding pharmacies will have to stop increased versions of Semaglutid in the next 60 to 90 days in the next 60 to 90 days, depending on the type of facility, said the agency. This transition period will probably give the patient time to switch to the brand versions of the medication.

In accordance with the FDA rules, however, connections can still produce alternative versions of the medicines if they modify doses, add other ingredients or change the method for treating treatments to meet the needs of a certain patient.

Some patients rely on compound versions because they have no insurance cover for the medication from Novo Nordisk and cannot afford their strong price tags of around $ 1,000 per month. While Ozempic is covered by most health plans, weight loss drugs such as Wegovy are currently not covered by Medicare and another insurance.

A general view outside the United Healthcare Corporate company on December 4, 2024 in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Stephen Maturen | Getty pictures

Unitedhealthcare offers certain employees in the unit of service operations the opportunity to accept Buyouts if they canceled for the insurance giant by March 3. After a turbulent year, CNBC.

Those who do not accept the offer are continued in their current role or in a comparable position, two people who are familiar with the matter said CNBC. If the company does not meet with a withdrawal rate through buyouts, the employees will be released, according to the people, citing an internal resource site.

The company rejected how many employees received Buyout offers as part of the so-called voluntary resignation program. The unit of the Operations services monitors several subdivisions with which customer service, claims, the enrollment, the insurance benefits of customers and more are managed, one person said.

Unitedhealthcare, the arm of insurance from Unitedhealth GroupIf the largest private health insurer in the US Unitedhealth group is more than 440,000 employees in December 2023, however, it is not known how many people work in their performance segment or overall insurance business.

The Unitedhealth Group is the largest conglomerate for healthcare in the USA, based on the income and market capitalization of around 460 billion US part -time changes in healthcare. Even after killing the CEO of the insurance unit Brian Thompson in December, it was exposed to a new anger about high health costs in the United States.

Employees who come into question for the Buyouts include full-time or part-time US employees who are assigned to four internal segments within the framework of services, including company, consumer business, core and provider services.

“This voluntary option is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that our team is best positioned in order to meet the developing needs of people and customers who are honored to serve to serve,” said a spokesman for United in one Explanation to CNBC. “We continue to expand our workforce with more than 3,200 positions that are currently available at the Unitedhealth Group's career.”

The company expects that the employee's date of termination will not be earlier than on May 1, according to the memo. The memo said that some employees who accept Buyouts may have to work beyond this date, but the company does not expect to have to work after November 13th.

Your severance payments depend on the number of years you have spent in the company and its salary grade and will occur in your termination date, the memo says. According to Memo, the advantages that employees who are included in potential future layoffs may not offer “as cheap” as those who offered employees as part of the Buyout program.

Workers who received the buyout offers are shocked, said that the people familiar with the matter, especially after the Unitedhealth Group reported its highest annual turnover in 2024. In its earnings publication in January, the company said that it generated sales of $ 400.3 billion in 2024, and in 2024 income, 8% compared to the year.

In the fourth quarter of the company, the executives of Unitedhealth said that the “digital adoption” reduced the costs. CEO Andrew Witty called it a “modernization agenda” that includes artificial intelligence that is not limited.

He added that Unitedhealth is “only a kind of scratch on the surface of the chance”.

The workers were informed about the Buyouts on Monday during a meeting that lasted about 10 minutes and was announced that they would have the opportunity to ask questions in information meetings in the coming days, people said.

The Buyouts follow the Thompson shootout, which excluded a stream with pent -up anger and resentment against the insurance industry and renewed reforms.

This came only months after the change in healthcare that processes medical claims, in February 2024 from a cyber attack that affected the protected health information of around 190 million people. The Unitedhealth Group has paid more than 3 billion US dollars to the provider affected by the cyber attack.

The Unitedhealth Group also released employees in its Department of Optum Health Services last year.

The company's shares closed 2%on Wednesday.

Deshawn “DJ” Chow was not sure in his early teenagers whether he could ever live a normal life. The pain episodes caused by its sickle disease became increasingly worse.

“It was difficult to skip school and always be in the hospital,” said the 19-year-old. “And only severe pain in … my head and my lower back.”

When new sicklegelgae therapies were approved by Food and Drug Administration a little more than a year ago, the adopted parents of Chow in Los Angeles were looking for the City of Hope Children's Cancer Cancer to give him access to the new treatment. To relieve it, the center accepted him as patient and quickly secured the approval of the insurance sponsored by the Chows.

“They cover pretty much all of this [at] Almost no costs from our own pocket for us. So we are very grateful for these advantages, “said DJ's father Sean Chow.” I am amazed. “

DJ Chow is one of the handful of hospital patients Spot point pharmaceuticalswhich costs more than 2 million US dollars per patient. The treatment process included several hospital stays and chemotherapy treatments at additional costs in the past year.

Seniconal cell is a blood disorder in which the red blood cells of a person are wrong in crescent moon moons. It affects black people disproportionately and causes severe pain episodes that can often end up in hospitals.

Chow is a small number of patients to complete the treatment with new gene therapies. After completing the complete course of the Casgevy treatments in January, he lets himself dream of doing the things he always wanted to do.

“Learn how to do snowboard and surf and do all of these things … experiences that I have never really had because of my sickle,” he said.

Slow ramp

While more than 100,000 Americans are suffering from sickle diseases, younger patients whose organs have not been damaged by the disease are the most promising candidates who benefit from the new treatments.

Nevertheless, the exceeding of the ability to treat patients on a scale was slow. In the first year, the FDA has been approved for two genetic therapies for sickle cells, just more than 100 patients were treated.

Vertex's leading employees said about the profit for the fourth quarter of the company that 50 patients worldwide had received their first cell collections by the end of last last last last last last last last last last last last last last lastally a lot. Now managers in competitors Bluebird organic Last autumn said that almost five dozen patients were treated with his medication Lyfgenia, which is more than 3 million US dollars per patient. Another 37 patients are to be treated with the Bluebird therapy in early 2025.

In order for the first treatment centers to offer the new sickle generation therapies, coordination with insurers required a little learning curve to obtain the cover.

“It is much more smooth today than we started to get patients” This is developed by … manufacturer and we share this with the payer if you don't know anything about it. “

Dr. Leo Wang from City of Hope, the pediatric hematologist oncologist who works with Chow, also said that the process had become more smooth, but he fears that the price of these treatments still has hurdles for reporting.

“The challenges for the health system are immense. This is very expensive therapy,” he said, “for employer insurance plans it may be a little difficult to do justice to these costs.”

So far, the slow increase in patients in the treatment of early cases has made it manageable, said David Joyner, CEO of CVS Health, parent company of the health insurer Aetna. Since the demand is expected to be improved, many in the industry are looking for the development of new payment models for the sickle cell treatments and other gene therapies on the horizon.

“Estimating risk boys are being developed … sometimes at the state medicaid level and sometimes together in larger payers,” said Joyner that the financial burden on treatments over only one state or a company exceeds.

“You have to think about another payment model, since today's payment model is not so constructed that the costs are spread,” he said. “But that takes time.”

A challenge for medicaid

For state Medicaid programs, the challenge of affordability for the new sickle cells can be even greater. More than half of the sickle cell patients are covered under the health plan of the state state for Americans with low incomes.

According to a study by researchers at the University of Chicago, southern countries such as Georgia, Florida and Mississippi have the greatest concentrations of sickle patients.

The bidders developed a cell and gene therapy payment model as part of the centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which provide the states a result-based price for the result-based price and delivers some funds for the new medication. The deadline for states that can apply for the program ends on February 28th. The first federal subsidies that contribute to the drugs that are on the right track in June according to CMS officials.

As part of the new payment model, the states could receive up to 9.5 million US dollars of federal financing, but even with reduced prices, which in some cases may not cover the costs for the treatment of medicaid patients.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University calculated that the 10 states with the largest peculiarity populations could record an average effect of $ 30 million based on an estimate of the treatments of almost 1.9 million dollars.

These increased costs would come at a time when the Trump government and the congress controlled by Republicans are looking for ways to reduce federal expenses. The administration has already started to reduce personnel to health authorities, and the federal financing for state medicaid programs is expected to be on the table in upcoming budget proposals.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary for Health and Human Services Total.

“I have a lot of friends who have sicken. I saw the suffering they endure,” said Kennedy. “There are now promising gene therapies. They are very, very expensive, but it's something that is that [National Institutes of Health] Should be enthusiastic – this type of research. “

Sean Chow said that he was grateful to the researchers who have developed gene therapy, from whom he hopes that he will enable his son to have a more normal future without weakening episodes. He wants other families to have the same opportunity to access the high -priced genetic therapies for their relatives.

“A child with sickle cells was heartbreaking,” he said. “I hope that more and more patients will receive the therapy, costs can be reduced.”