| | | | |  | | By Ben Leonard, Evan Peng and Erin Schumaker | | | | | 
Ozempic is helping people lose weight, if they can afford it. | AP | Interest in new weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy has spiked, but most people using them have to pay out of pocket. It ain’t cheap: The price for both can run more than $1,000 a month. Medicare doesn’t cover obesity drugs, and private insurers are pulling back coverage, according to new data from Found, an online weight-management firm. Just below 70 percent of coverage requests were denied in June, up from 33 percent in April, Found says. “Overprescribing, supply chain issues, fawning media coverage, social media and unprecedented consumer demand have led to a perfect GLP-1 [glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist] storm, with the drug now in extremely short supply,” the firm wrote, referencing the class of drugs that affects the brain’s perception of hunger and of which Wegovy and Ozempic are part. Why it matters: More than 2 in 5 Americans are obese, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, a number that’s soared in the past two decades. Evidence is mounting that Ozempic, Wegovy and other GLP-1 drugs could help reverse the trend, but cost could limit the impact. In Congress: Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Reps. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) have introduced companion bills that would direct Medicare to cover obesity medications.
| | | | HITTING YOUR INBOX AUGUST 14—CALIFORNIA CLIMATE: Climate change isn’t just about the weather. It's also about how we do business and create new policies, especially in California. So we have something cool for you: A brand-new California Climate newsletter. It's not just climate or science chat, it's your daily cheat sheet to understanding how the legislative landscape around climate change is shaking up industries across the Golden State. Cut through the jargon and get the latest developments in California as lawmakers and industry leaders adapt to the changing climate. Subscribe now to California Climate to keep up with the changes. | | | | | | | | | 
Lalla Takerkoust, Morocco | Andrew Nazdin | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. President Joe Biden’s dog, Commander, sunk his teeth into Secret Service agents, or otherwise attacked them, 10 times between October 2022 and January, according to an Associated Press report citing Department of Homeland Security records. A Harvard professor of evolutionary biology speculated that the stress of White House living could be the reason. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Paul Demko, who explores how Mississippi’s new medical marijuana market has attracted 280 licensed businesses to serve fewer than 20,000 enrolled patients.
| | | | | | |  There's good news from Sydney about HIV transmission. | AP | The world should look Down Under for how to eliminate HIV transmission, new data suggests. At one point, inner Sydney had the highest prevalence of HIV in Australia, but last year, only 11 new cases were reported there. New HIV infections in the central districts of Sydney dropped by 88 percent between 2010 and 2022, according to Andrew Grulich of the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales. Grulich attributed the success to outreach efforts in the LGBTQ community, including education about the category of HIV-prevention medicines known as PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, the most common of which is a once-daily pill. The data, presented Monday at the International AIDS Society’s HIV science conference in Brisbane, Australia, and not yet peer reviewed, means inner Sydney could be the first place in the world to reach the U.N.’s target for ending HIV transmission, defined as a 90 percent reduction in new cases by 2030. Even so: Other Kirby Institute researchers presenting at the conference, including Skye McGregor, pointed to the continuing need to better educate people about HIV transmission risks. While men who have sex with men tend to be aware of HIV prevention tools like PrEP, heterosexual people are much less likely to know about them, McGregor said. Thirty percent of new HIV diagnoses in Australia in 2022 were in heterosexual people.
| | | | YOUR TICKET INSIDE THE GOLDEN STATE POLITICAL ARENA: California Playbook delivers the latest intel, buzzy scoops and exclusive coverage from Sacramento and Los Angeles to Silicon Valley and across the state. Don't miss out on the daily must-read for political aficionados and professionals with an outsized interest in California politics, policy and power. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | |  New funding from ARPA-H aims to improve cancer surgery. | AP | The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health wants grant proposals to address two cancer surgery problems: tumor-edge visualization and critical anatomy visualization. The new agency charged with funding high-risk, high-reward research believes that if surgeons can see tumors' edges more clearly, they'll have a better shot at removing them and avoiding damage to healthy tissue. Developing devices to allow surgeons to see nerves and blood vessels in 3D while operating could similarly improve surgery outcomes. The request for proposals is the first cancer-focused program from ARPA-H. Called Precision Surgical Interventions, it dovetails with President Joe Biden's goal for his cancer moonshot: reducing the cancer death rate by half in the next 25 years. "Researchers and innovators across the country are pioneering new techniques and technologies to make cancer removal surgeries more precise, accurate, and achievable," Biden said in a statement Thursday. "It’s an exciting horizon in cancer research and development that could save and extend many lives.” Why it matters: Two million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year. While surgery is typically the first option for people with solid tumors, it can be hard for surgeons to tell where tumors end and nerves, blood vessels and lymph ducts begin. Accidentally damaging healthy tissue can mean more operations, pain and longer hospital stays. Those corrective procedures and treatments cost the U.S. more than $1 billion each year. What's next? Proposer's Day for interested researchers in fields like oncology, surgery and imaging technology is Sept. 7. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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