Hello, everyone, and welcome to the middle of the week. Congratulations on making it this far. It is an accomplishment, after all. The next step is to … keep going. And why not? Just consider the alternatives. On that optimistic note, please join us for a needed cuppa stimulation. Our choice today is blueberry hibiscus. Meanwhile, here are some items of interest to get you going. Have a wonderful day, and do drop us a line when you hear something juicy. …
The Trump administration push for lower U.S. drug prices helped Astellas Pharma secure higher reimbursement pricing for its new eye medicine in Japan, Bloomberg News says. In a submission to Japanese officials, Astellas argued that domestic drug costs could influence U.S. pricing under Trump’s proposed most-favored nation scheme, and won a reimbursement level for Izervay that was more generous than typical outcomes. Astellas chief executive officer Naoki Okamura said the company leveraged the most-favored nation dialog and believes Izervay got “relatively reasonable pricing” in Japan. Okamura said it is unclear if Japanese officials explicitly considered Trump’s policy in their closed-door decision-making process, but the outcome suggests a shift in the government’s stance.
The Wegovy obesity drug conferred a significantly higher risk of ischemic optic neuropathy, or ION, than any other GLP-1 agonist, including the Ozempic diabetes treatment, MedPage Today tells us, citing an analysis of U.S. Food and Drug Administration data. In a review of 31,774 side effect reports in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System database, researchers found that Wegovy was associated with a nearly fivefold higher risk of ION versus Ozempic. Men had a threefold higher ION risk versus women, according to the analysis published in the British Journal of Ophthamalogy. Both drugs contain the same active ingredient, semaglutide. FDA labeling for semaglutide products do not list ION as a risk, but the European Medicines Agency has indicated that non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy is a very rare side effect.Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…