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      Some States Say They Can’t Afford Ozempic and Other Weight Loss Drugs

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      Public employees in West Virginia who took the drugs lost weight and were healthier, and some are despondent that the state is canceling a program to help pay for them.Joanna Bailey, a family physician and obesity specialist, doesn’t want to tell her patients that they can’t take Wegovy, but she has gotten used to it.Around a quarter of the people she sees in her small clinic in Wyoming County would benefit from the weight-loss medications known as GLP-1s, which also include Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro, she says. The drugs have helped some of them lose 15 to 20 percent of their weight. But most people in the area she serves don’t have insurance that covers the cost, and virtually no one can afford sticker prices of $1,000 to $1,400 a month.“Even my richest patients can’t afford it,” Dr. Bailey said. She then mentioned something that many doctors in West Virginia — among the poorest states in the country, with the highest prevalence of obesity, at 41 percent — say: “We’ve separated between the haves and the have-nots.”Such disparities sharpened in March when West Virginia’s Public Employees Insurance Agency, which pays most of the cost of prescription drugs for more than 75,000 teachers, municipal workers and other public employees and their families, canceled a pilot program to cover weight-loss drugs.Some private insurers help pay for medications to treat obesity, but most Medicaid programs do so only to manage diabetes, and Medicare covers Wegovy and Zepbound only when they are prescribed for heart problems.Over the past year, states have been trying, amid rising demand, to determine how far to extend coverage for public employees. Connecticut is on track to spend more than $35 million this year through a limited weight-loss coverage initiative. In January, North Carolina announced that it would stop paying for weight-loss medications after forking out $100 million for them in 2023 — 10 percent of its spending on prescription drugs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Gilead Shot Provides Total Protection From HIV in Trial of Young African Women

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      An injection given just twice a year could herald a breakthrough in protecting the population that has the highest infection rates.Researchers and activists in the trenches of the long fight against H.I.V. got a rare piece of exciting news this week: Results from a large clinical trial in Africa showed that a twice-yearly injection of a new antiviral drug gave young women total protection from the virus.“I got cold shivers,” said Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, an investigator in the trial of the drug, lenacapavir, describing the startling sight of a line of zeros in the data column for new infections. “After all our years of sadness, particularly over vaccines, this truly is surreal.”Yvette Raphael, the leader of a group called Advocacy for Prevention of H.I.V. and AIDS in South Africa, said it was “the best news ever.”The randomized controlled trial, called Purpose 1, was conducted in Uganda and South Africa. It tested whether the every-six-months injection of lenacapavir, made by Gilead Sciences, would provide better protection against H.I.V. infection than two other drugs in wide use in high-income countries, both daily pills.The results were so convincing that the trial was halted early at the recommendation of the independent data review committee, which said all participants should be offered the injection because it clearly provided superior protection against the virus.None of the 2,134 women in the arm of the trial who received lenacapavir contracted H.I.V. By comparison, 16 of the 1,068 women (or 1.5 percent) who took Truvada, a daily pill that has been available for more than a decade, and 39 of 2,136 women (1.8 percent) who received a newer daily pill called Descovy were infected.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Akira Endo, Scholar of Statins That Reduce Heart Disease, Dies at 90

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      The Japanese biochemist found in the 1970s that cholesterol-lowering drugs lowered the LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, level in the blood.Akira Endo, a Japanese biochemist whose research on fungi helped to lay the groundwork for widely prescribed drugs that lower a type of cholesterol that contributes to heart disease, died on June 5. He was 90.Chiba Kazuhiro, the president of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, where Dr. Endo was a professor emeritus, confirmed the death in a statement. The statement did not give a cause or say where he died.Cholesterol, mostly made in the liver, has important functions in the body. It is also a major contributor to coronary artery disease, a leading cause of death in the United States, Japan and many other countries.In the early 1970s, Dr. Endo grew fungi in an effort to find a natural substance that could block a crucial enzyme that is part of the production of cholesterol. Some scientists worried that doing so might threaten cholesterol’s positive functions.But by 1980, Dr. Endo’s team had found that a cholesterol-lowering drug, or statin, lowered the LDL, or “bad” cholesterol level, in the blood. And by 1987, after other researchers in the field had published additional research on statins, Merck was manufacturing the first licensed statin.Such drugs have proven effective in reducing the risk for cardiovascular disease, and millions of people in the United States and beyond now take them for high levels of LDL.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      FDA Panel Weights MDMA Therapy for PTSD

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      An independent group of experts is meeting Tuesday to consider whether to allow use of this illegal drug, also known as Ecstasy, to treat PTSD. The Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to approve the use of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. An independent advisory panel of experts will review studies on Tuesday and is expected to vote on whether the treatment would be effective and whether its benefits outweigh the risks.The panel will hear from Lykos Therapeutics, which has submitted evidence from clinical trials in an effort to obtain agency approval to sell the drug legally to treat people with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy.Millions of Americans suffer from PTSD, including military veterans who are at high risk of suicide. No new treatment for PTSD has been approved in more than 20 years.What is MDMA?Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a synthetic psychoactive drug first developed by Merck in 1912. After being resynthesized in the mid-1970s by Alexander Shulgin, a psychedelic chemist in the Bay Area, MDMA gained popularity among therapists. Early research suggested significant therapeutic potential for a number of mental health conditions.MDMA is an entactogen, or empathogen, that fosters self-awareness, feelings of empathy and social connectedness. It is not a classic psychedelic like LSD or psilocybin, drugs that can cause altered realities and hallucinations. Among recreational users, MDMA is commonly known as molly or Ecstasy.In 1985, as the drug became a staple at dance clubs and raves, the Drug Enforcement Administration classified MDMA as a Schedule I substance, a drug defined as having no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Abortion Pills May Become Controlled Substances in Louisiana

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      A bill that is expected to pass would impose prison time and thousands of dollars in fines on people possessing the pills without a prescription.Louisiana could become the first state to classify abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances, making possession of the pills without a prescription a crime subject to jail time and fines.A bill that would designate the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV drugs — a category of medicines with the potential for abuse or dependence — passed the state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday by a vote of 63 to 29. Should the Senate follow suit, Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and a vocal opponent of abortion, is likely to sign the legislation into law.The measure — which would put abortion pills in the same category as Xanax, Ambien and Valium — contradicts the way the federal government classifies mifepristone and misoprostol. The federal Food and Drug Administration does not consider abortion pills to be drugs with the potential for dependence or abuse, and decades of medical studies have found both to be overwhelmingly safe.Under the legislation, possession of mifepristone or misoprostol without a prescription in Louisiana could be punishable with thousands of dollars in fines and up to five years in jail. Pregnant women would be exempt from those penalties; most abortion bans and restrictions do not punish pregnant women because most voters oppose doing so.“These drugs are increasingly being shipped from outside our state and country to women and girls in our state,” Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, said in a statement on social media. “This legislation does NOT prohibit these drugs from being prescribed and dispensed in Louisiana for legal and legitimate reasons.”Louisiana already bans most abortions, except when women’s lives or health are in danger or fetuses have some fatal conditions. As a result, abortion rights advocates and legal scholars said that in practice, the measure might not prevent many abortions among Louisiana women. Since the state imposed its strict abortion ban after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, many patients have traveled to states where abortion is legal or have obtained pills under shield laws from doctors or nurses in other states who prescribe and mail the medications to Louisiana. Such circumstances would not be affected by the new bill, experts say.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Birth Control Pills Make Some Women Miserable. But Are They Stopping?

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      The woman in the video looks resolute, and a little sad, as she cuts up a pack of birth control pills. “These silly little pills have literally ruined me as a person,” reads the caption. The clip, which is on TikTok, has 1.1 million likes. It’s one of thousands that have proliferated on social media in recent years with virtually the same message: The pill causes terrible, sometimes irreversible side effects, and women should free themselves from it.Anecdotal reports from news outlets have suggested that women are quitting the pill in large numbers because of this type of online post. “We’ve known for a long time that people really rely on their social circles to help them with medical decision making as it relates to contraception,” said Dr. Deborah Bartz, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Against a backdrop of increasingly restrictive abortion access, the idea that women might be giving up a reliable form of contraception because of social media hype has concerned researchers and doctors.But, according to initial data, prescriptions for the birth control pill are not actually declining at all. An analysis by Trilliant Health, an analytics firm that provides health care companies with industry insights, found that usage has been steadily trending upward in the United States; 10 percent of women had prescriptions in 2023, up from 7.1 percent in 2018. The analysis looked at prescriptions for the pill that were written and picked up. Even among those aged 15 to 34, who would be most likely to see negative social media posts, Trilliant found prescriptions had increased.The analysis was done at the request of The New York Times, and drew on Trilliant’s database of medical and pharmacy claims. It looked at a nationally representative sample of roughly 40 million women, aged 15 to 44, who used either Medicaid or commercial insurance. It doesn’t account for people who might get their birth control from telehealth providers that don’t take insurance, but that group most likely represents a small slice of the American population, said Sanjula Jain, chief research officer at Trilliant. Several of those telehealth companies also reported double-digit increases in birth control pill purchases in the past two years. The data also doesn’t include sales of the over-the-counter birth control pill, Opill, which has been available in stores in the U.S. since March.Ten percent of women had prescriptions for the pill in 2023, up from 7.1 percent in 2018.Source: Trilliant HealthThe pill has a reputation as a reliable, if flawed, form of birth control. Its known side effects — including blood clots, weight gain, a loss of libido and mood disruptions — have in fact been the main reason that some women do eventually quit the pill, Dr. Bartz said. When patients raise those concerns with physicians, they are often dismissed, she added, which can erode people’s trust in their doctors, and in health care institutions.

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      How Ozempic Is Changing Diabetes Treatment

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      Millions of patients rely on insulin. But with new drugs, some have been able to lower their doses or stop taking it altogether.For over 20 years, Betsy Chadwell carried her insulin pens everywhere. Day in and day out, she carefully calibrated the doses needed to keep her Type 2 diabetes in check. “Every meal, and every morning and every night — it controls your life,” she said.In late 2021, she started on the diabetes drug Ozempic. Within months, she was able to stop taking the short-acting insulin she typically took before each meal altogether, and she has substantially reduced the dose of long-acting insulin she uses daily. Scaling back on insulin has given her a sense of freedom, she said. She still uses a continuous glucose monitor to track her blood sugar, meticulously watching for slumps and spikes — but even as she took less insulin, she said, Ozempic has helped keep her glucose levels more under control.Millions of Americans rely on some form of insulin, a lifesaving drug that has long been a mainstay of diabetes treatment. But it can also be a burden to patients like Ms. Chadwell, who must juggle different formulations and doses, and often must have insulin on hand at all times. “I really feel for those patients, because you can never stop having it in the back of your mind,” said Dr. Scott Hagan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington who studies obesity. But in recent years, Ozempic and a similar drug, Mounjaro — both weekly shots that can lower blood sugar, in part by mimicking a hormone that stimulates insulin production — have offered patients an enticing new option to try managing their Type 2 diabetes without relying as heavily on insulin.And drugmakers are examining other ways these drugs might work alongside insulin: Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Ozempic, is studying a new drug called IcoSema, a weekly shot that combines insulin icodec (an ultra long-acting version of insulin) and semaglutide, the compound in Ozempic.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews Keith Humphreys

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      Every Tuesday and Friday, Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation about something that matters, like today’s episode with Keith Humphreys. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.Transcripts of our episodes are made available as soon as possible. They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.This Is a Very Weird Moment in the History of Drug LawsThe war on drugs failed, but decriminalization is facing its own backlash. What’s next?[MUSIC PLAYING]EZRA KLEIN: From New York Times Opinion, this is “The Ezra Klein Show.”In 2020, voters in Oregon passed a ballot measure, a drug reform policy, that was beyond what I ever thought would pass in any state in America.^ARCHIVED RECORDING 1^: Overnight, Oregon became the first state in the country to decriminalize most street drugs.^ARCHIVED RECORDING 2^: Even drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth, and oxycodone.^ARCHIVED RECORDING 3^: It’s a sea change. Measure 110, which was passed by 58 percent of Oregon voters, treats active drug users as potential patients rather than criminals.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More