Sydney Lupkin
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Eli Lilly's new pill is called Fundeo.
Although this is the same company behind Zepbound, the blockbuster injectable obesity medicine, Eli Lilly decided not to take Zepbound's main ingredient and make it in pill form.
Instead, the company developed a new ingredient, Orfaglipron.
Daniel Skowronski, the company's chief scientific and medical officer, says until now, all of these GLP-1 drugs have been peptides, meaning they need to be taken as injections or as a pill with restrictions.
Lilly hasn't announced a list price yet, but it says people with commercial insurance could pay as little as $25 a month.
The FDA rattled the biotech industry when it said it wouldn't even look at Moderna's application to market the first mRNA flu shot.
Moderna used its mRNA technology to swiftly create and manufacture its COVID-19 shot during the pandemic.
The company wants to use the same technology to make a flu vaccine.
Initially, the FDA said it wouldn't review the new shot because the company didn't compare it to a high-dose flu vaccine in older people.
Now, Moderna says it will take an age-based approach and agreed to add a confirmatory study after marketing begins that will focus on older adults.
The company says the new vaccine would be ready for the next flu season pending FDA approval.
Vaccine maker Moderna says the FDA is refusing to consider approving the company's first flu vaccine, which also uses mRNA technology.
The FDA told the company the agency isn't satisfied with the company's study comparing Moderna's mRNA flu vaccine to a standard dose flu vaccine already on the market.
The study showed the Moderna flu vaccine was more effective.
The decision by the FDA, which Moderna said is inconsistent with the agency's previous feedback, is the latest blow the Trump administration has delivered to efforts to use mRNA technology to develop new vaccines.
The telehealth company HIMSS says that today it's launching its own version of the Wegovi pill made by a compounding pharmacy.
And the starting dose will be $49, $100 less than Novo Nordisk's cash price for the brand name.