Good morning everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and invigorating, because that oh-so familiar routine of deadlines, online meetings, and phone calls has predictably returned. But what can you do? The world, such as it is, continues to spin. So time to give it a nudge in a better direction by brewing cups of stimulation. Our choice today is banana split. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest to start you on your journey, which we hope is meaningful and productive. Best of luck, and do keep in touch. …
President Trump urged pharmaceutical companies to publicly prove that their Covid-19 products work, saying in a Truth Social post that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “being ripped apart over this question,” STAT writes. “I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” he wrote in what appeared to be his first public acknowledgement of recent tumult at the CDC. Drug companies have long shared findings with government regulators and the public showing that their Covid-19 products are overwhelmingly safe and effective. In his post, Trump said he has been shown data demonstrating the vaccines and drugs are effective and have saved millions of lives, but he accused the companies behind the products of not sharing that information publicly, or with officials at the CDC. Trump used the post, which comes five days after the ouster of Susan Monarez as CDC director and resignation of several other top officials, to urge companies to “clear up this MESS, one way or the other.”
Some Chinese companies now racing to make generic versions of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy also supplied ingredients for more than a billion makeshift doses of weight loss drugs sold online in the U.S. over the past two years, Reuters reports. Cheap copies of Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound are on the retreat in the U.S. as regulators restrict their sale, slowing shipments from Chinese suppliers of the raw ingredients that allowed for explosive growth of the medicines. The shortage opened the door for compounding pharmacies, turbocharged by telehealth firms that flourished during the Covid pandemic, to supply cheap copies to a huge market chasing the promised weight loss. At least eight Chinese companies, including Jiangsu Sinopep-Allsino Biopharmaceutical and Hybio Pharmaceutical helped flood the U.S. with raw semaglutide and tirzepatide, the main ingredients in Wegovy and Zepbound, respectively, sources told Reuters. A Reuters analysis of U.S. Food and Drug Administration shipping records backs that up.
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