Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite — which was extended on this side of the pond due to a holiday — was relaxing and invigorating. Now, though, the usual routine of online meetings and deadlines has resumed. So to cope, we are quaffing cups of stimulation. Our choice today is blueberry cobbler. We are also raising an extra cup in honor of assembling Pharmalot (and Pharmalittle) for 17 years and want to thank those of you who have tuned in all this time, or for however long you have done so. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits to get you going. We hope you have a smashing day and, as we have been saying since we began this routine way back when, do keep in touch. We enjoy the tips, feedback, and insights. …
Novo Nordisk resumed shipments of its Wegovy weight loss drug in the 1.7-milligram dose in early January, following a short-term stock-out in the U.S. in mid-December, Reuters notes. Along with lower-strength doses of 0.25, 0.5, and 1 milligram of the drug, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration disclosed in its drug shortage list that the 1.7-milligram dose has limited availability, and the duration of the shortage was “to be decided.” Wegovy’s larger dose of 2.4 milligrams is still available, according to its website. Surging demand for weight loss medications has caused sporadic shortages as Novo struggles to increase manufacturing.
President Biden has promised to require fair prices from drugmakers that use federally funded research — and now, in a major recent move, said he will trigger government march-in rights on patents for medicines that run afoul of that goal. But the new director of the U.S. National Institutes for Health, who is locked in the center of this debate, is not taking any big steps yet, STAT writes. “Our relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, with the industry overall, is really, really critical,” NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli says. “It’s very difficult, if you can imagine, to implement something broadly that is as effective as we want it to be.”