quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

I haven't insulted anyone that posts intelligently

^^^^^^^^^^
Hahaha Perhaps you missed the law school course where they teach relevant arguments. I now know that you no nothing about actual healthcare nor anything about Private Equity.

Triple negative? Computing…

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Sadly some desperate folks have turned to Meth, thinking they can switch back later. All thanks to private equity investment in healthcare.

Huh? What are you saying?

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Sadly some desperate folks have turned to Meth, thinking they can switch back later. All thanks to private equity investment in healthcare.

Huh? What are you saying?

Dr. Freud is calling…

Private equity created Cerebral a business entity. I posted several articles from the WSJ regarding their practices. Because of the pandemic Cerebral was allowed to issue prescriptions for Adderall and they did so at such a rate that 41 million scripts were written. As a result there is currently a shortage and some folks have resorted to meth to deal with the withdrawal.
Meanwhile DOJ is investigating Cerebral and their CEO who has no healthcare background has resigned.

Obesity is a problem but a lifetime regimen of $1400+ per month appetite suppressant drugs is not the answer.

This isn't just a Tiktok issue. My wife was hit by menopause hard and it threw her hormones all out of whack causing a significant weight gain.

Her Dr (bariatric specialist) is who put her on Ozempic. And is not off-label, the FDA authorization was approved for weight loss.

For her, it's just a part of the overall solution... not a cure-all magic shot.

^^ That makes a bit more sense if it's not off-label. Doctors writing 41 million scripts without major pushback from hospitalists and insurance would mean it's either a major money maker and/or common use as prescribed, right?

We have a friend that isn’t responding to other diabetic drugs and was prescribed this drug. Of course she is struggling finding Ozempic.

So, I’m a little confused. I know historically doctors have used drugs designed for one ailment, to help with others. But two years ago if someone felt Ivermectin was a better alternative, they were shot immediately after hanging. So, now it’s ok to go back to the old way?

I’ve been doing a Keto type diet off and on for a while. My weakness is ice cream, donuts, pies, cookies, bourbon, beer…

I almost hit 290. I’m 233 now. I try for one meal per day. And it’s a good one! I eat well! Shrimp and scallops last night! I don’t think injecting yourself to lose weight will help in the long run.

Anyone on oral beetus meds know how well Ozempic works on reducing your a1c?

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
Anyone on oral beetus meds know how well Ozempic works on reducing your a1c?

I've never taking oral medicine but I do take Ozempic. I'm surprised to read somewhere in this thread that Ozempic was only approved for diabetes in 2017. I'm confused because I think that's when my doctor started prescribing it for me. Prior to that, I was reluctant to take any diabetes medicine like Metformin. Because I worked in the industry, including Novo Nordisk, I learned that medicine like Metformin tend to make people obese which, in turn, worsens their diabetes.

My doctor finally got me to agree to use Ozempic. Starting in 2017, I was on 1 Mg a week until sometime last year, like August, I got my doctor to lower my dosage to .5 Mg a week because my A1C has come down to inside of normal. I am hopeful that I can continue to decrease it at some point to .25 Mg a week. Changing from 1 Mg to .5 Mg didn't lower my copay at all. It was still the same price for the same number of injections.

Things that have helped me with weight loss.

A) Getting on a physical therapy/Pilates program. Stuff is starting to hurt a lot less, and I’m having moments of enjoying movement again. (Not many, but I haven’t had those moments in many years)

B) Figure out what you’re deficient of/probably eat a LOT more vegetables. This is pure SWAG but I’m betting that much of obesity stems from how nutrient deprived our ag soils have become. As soils improve, the vitamin and mineral content of the crops improve.

(It’s like eating commercial rib eye vs venison. No one eats a 16oz portion of venison, but it’s a very common steak size)

Back in my more youthful days it was white crosses. Also called pep pills. They helped people loose weight and also study harder and longer.
They were also prescribed by your doctor, at least at first, so considered mostly safe.
Lucky for me, I was naturally skinny and not all that concerned with my studies.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
Anyone on oral beetus meds know how well Ozempic works on reducing your a1c?

I've never taking oral medicine but I do take Ozempic. I'm surprised to read somewhere in this thread that Ozempic was only approved for diabetes in 2017. I'm confused because I think that's when my doctor started prescribing it for me. Prior to that, I was reluctant to take any diabetes medicine like Metformin. Because I worked in the industry, including Novo Nordisk, I learned that medicine like Metformin tend to make people obese which, in turn, worsens their diabetes.

My doctor finally got me to agree to use Ozempic. Starting in 2017, I was on 1 Mg a week until sometime last year, like August, I got my doctor to lower my dosage to .5 Mg a week because my A1C has come down to inside of normal. I am hopeful that I can continue to decrease it at some point to .25 Mg a week. Changing from 1 Mg to .5 Mg didn't lower my copay at all. It was still the same price for the same number of injections.

About $25 a month under our plan for the condition not the weight loss.

quote:

“Forty-two percent of Americans have obesity, and even more have overweight. That’s affecting our younger people and our adolescents,” says Caroline Apovian, MD

"Have obesity" "have overweight"? Has grammar changed too? I guess those words are used differently by MD's now.

I think the insurance industry has recently agreed to copay for many users of these injectables like Ozempic. My personal theory is that they've figured out it's cheaper to treat obesity now than diabetes later, but that's just a WAG.

A relative of mine is on it, and her insurance copays so it costs her $25 per month. She is not a diabetic, but started out around 100lb overweight. So far I think she has lost about 35lbs in around 8 months (?), so pretty solid results.

I was prescribed Ozempic for type 2.. And someone can have it if they want it.

Made me VIOLENTLY sick, only tried it twice and both times I thought I was going to have to go to the ER. I literally ruined every garbage can in the house and spent the whole day in the bathroom. Tore me up.

Bullshit.

Ozempic cash price at the retail pharmacies is approximately $1,500 a month. It's my understanding that the prescription plans don't even like to authorize it, payment wise.

There is a Doctors office nearby that specializes in weight loss.

They charged $300 a month for it. (Plus a $80 fee for the PA's service). They dispense it right then and there.
.

Alternative uses for medicines happen all the time, if the medical community (doctors) find an alternative use for Pill X alleviates problems for patients they will prescribe it.

Viagra was designed for hair loss, it was created to make hair grow, only men who used it for that found out it made another thing grow,

So lets ask the million dollar question, what will drive sales, more hair or more sex.... yep, sex wins, doctors and patient figured it out, demand grows and the drug company and Private Equity wins.

It's disingenuous to insinuate that everyone getting Ozempic for weight loss is a California actor/actress or some middle age wife wanting to drop 10 pounds for a wedding.

It's just as likely that it's being prescribed to help obese patients, who may not be type 2 avoid going type 2 instead of subscribing some weight loss pill.

Investors in Private Equity are not making doctors prescribe Ozempic, the market is, and there are no laws that stop doctors from prescribing any medicine for any patient they feel that the product will help. That's what they do.

Startup Offering Ozempic Surges With Controversial Ads, Fake Testimonials

In eight months, a startup called NextMed has emerged as a growing service among many trying to capitalize on the craze for drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro that are often prescribed for weight loss.

Run by a founder who graduated from college 14 months ago, the service has web traffic that has surpassed companies like Calibrate Health Inc. and Found Health Inc. that have advertised weight-loss prescriptions for longer. NextMed, whose corporate parent is Helio Logistics Inc., operates with far fewer employees than competitors. Calibrate has hundreds of employees, and Found has around 200.

As with many telehealth startups, NextMed’s growth has come primarily from advertising, including ads that health professionals have said are inappropriate. Company ads reviewed by The Wall Street Journal don’t include drug-risk information, and NextMed has promoted one drug—Ozempic—for a use not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The company used before-and-after photos showing substantial weight loss by people who weren’t its clients. A leading customer-review site questioned whether some of the company’s reviews were fake. NextMed has also faced complaints from patients who say they paid for services they never received.



After questions from the Journal, NextMed pulled an advertisement running on Instagram, stopped running television ads and changed or removed elements of its website.

NextMed’s practices are the latest example of a tech startup using aggressive advertising to boost its business facilitating online prescriptions. Lawmakers have called for more oversight of telehealth advertising after a Journal analysis showed many were running ads that promoted drugs for unapproved uses and that described drug benefits without citing risks.

A lawyer for NextMed, Adam Greene, said that the company has raised $7 million to date and that it generated less than $10 million in revenue in 2022.

A NextMed fundraising presentation from January that was reviewed by the Journal says the company’s revenue jumped to an average annual rate of $55 million at the beginning of this year, up from $1.5 million in July. A Journal analysis of those revenue run-rates would imply roughly $9 million in 2022 sales.

The presentation was prepared by an investor and circulated as part of an effort to raise around $30 million for the startup to fund additional growth initiatives.

NextMed said that it didn’t distribute the presentation and that figures the Journal asked about were incorrect.

Visits to NextMed’s website jumped to 776,000 in January from 64,000 in July, according to Similarweb, a research firm that measures web traffic.


NextMed’s website included fake testimonials from ‘Laura’ and ‘Rick,’ which the company removed after the Journal inquired about them.


Images of Tammy Ratcliffe's weight loss from an article about her gastric bypass surgery, which she obtained through Hartford HealthCare. Images of Jack Boyce's weight loss first appeared on the website of AFS Premier, the diet and exercise consultant he worked with.
One key way NextMed differentiates itself from rivals, according to the presentation, is with software it developed to quickly process insurance authorizations for the medication. Without insurance coverage, the popular new drugs which are prescribed for weight loss can cost more than $1,000 a month. Ozempic and Mounjaro are approved to treat diabetes, but are often prescribed “off-label” for weight loss. Wegovy has the same active ingredient as Ozempic and is approved for weight loss in obese patients.

The company gets by with fewer employees in part by outsourcing, according to the presentation. Outside companies provide telehealth clinicians, and workers in the Philippines handle other customer-related issues, the presentation says.

NextMed’s founder, Robert Epstein, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in December 2021 with undergraduate degrees in economics and computer science. The presentation calls him “brilliant,” citing his perfect SAT score and internships in private equity and high-frequency trading.

Mr. Epstein started NextMed as a Covid-testing business in 2020 and pivoted to weight-loss drugs last July, the presentation says.

Developed to treat Type 2 diabetes, drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro have skyrocketed in popularity after celebrities were said to have used them to lose weight. Elon Musk tweeted last November that “Ozempic/Wegovy” helped him lose 30 pounds.

Health professionals criticized some of the company’s social-media ads, along with those of some rivals, because they featured actors who aren’t overweight. Promoting weight-loss drugs for people who don’t need to lose weight could lead to problems such as body dysmorphia or eating disorders, the health professionals said.

NextMed said it works to comply with all applicable advertising requirements.

One of the company’s first TV ads promoted Ozempic as a weight-loss drug, though the FDA hasn’t approved it for that purpose. Like some other NextMed ads, it didn’t include safety or risk information as the FDA requires of drugmaker ads. NextMed isn’t a drugmaker and, like other telehealth companies that have been promoting prescription drugs, exists in a regulatory gray area.

The ad, which began running in December, was viewed 99 million times on networks like Fox News, ESPN and MSNBC, according to the TV measurement firm iSpot.tv Inc.



The commercial asks, “Trying to lose weight?” before showing boxes of Ozempic and Wegovy stamped with NextMed’s logo. The two drugs are made by Novo Nordisk A/S. Three smiling people hold images of themselves looking heavier as the ad lists amounts of weight they lost with NextMed.

It isn’t clear if the images are real. The ad says the people used the medication but also that they were paid. Subsequent ads with the same people say they are actors.

NextMed stopped running national TV ads on Feb. 7, iSpot data shows, a few days after the Journal inquired about them.

Like other telehealth companies, NextMed connects clients to doctors who can write them prescriptions and then charges continuing monthly fees for refills. It requires patients to do blood work to see if they are eligible for the weight-loss drugs. It said on its home page that the wait time for a “consult & prescription” is one day, but it isn’t clear how that is possible when clients must give blood and doctors must review the data. The company didn’t respond to a Journal inquiry about the one-day claim, but it was removed from the site shortly thereafter.

The Journal spoke to six NextMed clients who paid for the service but said they didn’t receive the easy access to prescriptions they expected after seeing NextMed’s ads. Four of them said the company didn’t respond to refund requests or customer-service emails until they posted negative reviews on sites like Trustpilot.


An image from a NextMed TV ad for its weight-loss service shows Ozempic, a diabetes drug that hasn’t been approved for weight loss, though doctors often prescribe it for that purpose.
Ximena Balbuena, a systems analyst from Virginia, said she signed up after seeing an ad and took a blood test but decided to cancel when it appeared that her insurance wouldn’t cover a prescription. When she asked for a refund in November, the company said it would do so and asked her to remove a YouTube video she made complaining about her experience. She hasn’t received a refund, she said.

Michelle Festi, from Florida, said a NextMed representative offered an Amazon gift card if she removed her negative review or made it positive. She refused.

The company didn’t respond to questions about the experiences of Mses. Balbuena and Festi.

In a Journal test of its sign-up process, NextMed charged $99 for its first month of service and locked customers into a one-year contract, which wasn’t disclosed before checkout, all before asking any health-related or eligibility questions.

The company said in a statement that users are charged an initial fee for the intake process. NextMed didn’t answer questions asking why the yearlong commitment wasn’t disclosed upfront. After the Journal’s inquiry, the company added a link to its membership agreement on its checkout page.

The Journal identified two before-and-after testimonials on NextMed’s website that appeared earlier on other, unrelated websites. One claimed “Rick” lost 98 pounds with NextMed. Identical photos of Jack Boyce appear on a website for AFS Premier, a Dallas workout and nutrition program. Mr. Boyce, which is his real name, said in an interview with the Journal that he lost 120 pounds with a punishing diet and exercise regimen from AFS.

“You can’t take diet drugs and get the results I got,” said Mr. Boyce, who added that the photos were taken in 2020, two years before NextMed launched its weight-loss service.

Another set of photos showing “Laura” were identical to photos of Tammy Ratcliffe before and after her 2007 gastric bypass surgery. She said she was disappointed that photos of her had been used falsely.

NextMed removed the “Rick” and “Laura” photos minutes after the Journal asked about them. Mr. Greene, NextMed’s lawyer, said it was “misled by the individuals who shared the photos.”

Trustpilot said it warned NextMed about “suspected fake reviews” for NextMed on Trustpilot’s site and said a widget on NextMed’s website that mimicked Trustpilot’s logo displayed potentially misleading information. The widget claimed a higher rating and more reviews than was the case on Trustpilot.

Mr. Greene said a dispute between NextMed and Trustpilot had been resolved. NextMed replaced the widget after the Journal inquired about it.

Write to Rolfe Winkler at Rolfe.Winkler@wsj.com


link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/s...60d?mod=hp_lead_pos3