In the News... Insulin price lawsuit, new CGM approved, diabetes camp scholarships... and more!

It’s In the News! A look at the top diabetes stories and headlines happening now. Top stories this week: The FTC sues PBMs over insulin pricing, a new CGM is approved in Europe, more news about GLP-1s but some research says it may not work as well for one population, diabetes camps are invited to apply for grants, and more!

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Episode transcription with links:

Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and every other Friday I bring you a short episode with the top diabetes stories and headlines happening now.

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers on Friday, accusing them of steering diabetes patients towards higher priced insulin in order to reap millions of dollars in rebates from pharmaceutical companies.

The case accuses UnitedHealth Group Inc's (UNH.N), opens new tab Optum unit, CVS Health Corp's (CVS.N), opens new tab CVS Caremark and Cigna Corp's (CI.N), opens new tab Express Scripts of unfairly excluding lower cost insulin products from lists of drugs covered by insurers.

The three companies said in statements that the suit was baseless and defended their business practices, saying that they had lowered insulin prices for businesses, unions and patients.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-ftc-sues-drug-gatekeepers-over-high-insulin-prices-2024-09-20/

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A new study finds metformin, may slow aging. Previous studies on "lower order" species have found that it can delay the onset of age-related diseases.  Gotta say, this is only in animal studies right now, not people, human trials are next.

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/diabetes-drug-metformin-aging/

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New research from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine identifies a potential new approach to address the opioid overdose epidemic—which has devastated families and communities nationally.

 

The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, suggests semaglutide is linked to lower opioid overdoses in people with opioid-use disorder (OUD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D).

 

Semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide receptor (GLP-1R) molecule that decreases hunger and helps regulate blood sugar in T2D, is also the active component in the diabetes and weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic.

 

The research team—led by biomedical informatics professor Rong Xu—analyzed six years of electronic records of nearly 33,000 patients with OUD who also had T2D. The researchers used a statistical approach that mimics a randomized clinical trial.

 

They found patients prescribed semaglutide had a significantly lower risk for opioid overdose, compared to those who had taken any of eight other anti-diabetic medications, including other types of GLP-1R-targeting medications.

 

About 107,500 people died from drug overdoses nationally in 2023, mostly from opioids, according to the CDC. Despite effective medications to prevent overdoses from OUD, the CDC estimates only a quarter of those with OUD receive them and about half discontinue treatment within six months.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-popular-diabetes-weight-loss-drug.html

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New research analyzing the effects of two drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes indicates a consistent lack of cardiovascular and renal benefits in Black populations.

The drugs, called sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2-Is) and glucogen-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RAs), are some of the newer treatments prescribed to lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

The research findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, show that for White and Asian populations, SGLT2-Is and GLP1-RAs have beneficial effects on blood pressure, weight control and renal function, and significantly reduce the risk of severe heart problems and kidney disease. However, the research shows no evidence of these beneficial effects in Black populations.

""Whether the differences are due to issues with under-representation of Black populations and low statistical power, or to racial/ethnic variations in the way the body and these drugs interact with each other needs further investigation," said Professor Seidu. "It is therefore important that prescribers don't hasten to deny these newer treatments to Black populations on the back of this research."

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240923/Research-reveals-disparities-in-diabetes-drug-efficacy-for-Black-populations.aspx

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If a woman is already in a "prediabetic" state in her teen or college years, her odds for a serious complication of pregnancy later in life rises, new research shows.

 

Ignoring prediabetes in teenagers "may represent a missed opportunity to avert pregnancy-related complications" later, said study lead author Katharine McCarthy. She's an assistant professor of population health science and policy, and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

 

Her team published its findings Sept. 24 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Prior research has found that rates of prediabetes have tripled among Americans ages 12 to 19 over the past decade.

In the new study, the Mount Sinai team tracked rates of prediabetes (using blood sugar tests) among a group of 14,000 New York City residents ages 10 to 24. None of these individuals had full-blown diabetes at the time they were tested.

 

Having prediabetes in youth was linked to a doubling of risk of gestational diabetes -- new-onset diabetes while pregnant. Tracking blood levels of hemoglobin A1c, a measure of a person’s average blood sugar level over the prior three months, was very predictive of whether or a not a woman would get gestational diabetes, the team found.

 

Prediabetes in youth was also linked to an 18% rise in the risk for hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, such as gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, or preterm delivery.

 

Measuring a teen girl's blood for signs of prediabetes might help protect her against trouble in a later pregnancy, McCarthy's group said.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-09-24/prediabetes-in-teens-could-raise-odds-for-complicated-pregnancies-later

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Is there a link between IBD and type 1? In a recent and very large study, researchers looked at more than 630-thousdan people and found that irritable bowel disease seemed to significantly increase the risk of type 1 diabetes and vice versa.

Interestingly, patients with IBD were found to have a significantly higher probability of formerly having contracted T1D, validating the bidirectional associations between these comorbidities. The highest risk was observed in patients with ulcerative colitis (aHR = 2.02), highlighting a stronger association with this IBD subtype.

Additionally, over 70% of the study cohort was followed for more than ten years, reinforcing the robustness of these findings.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240919/IBD-increases-type-1-diabetes-risk-revealing-a-bidirectional-link-between-the-two-conditions.aspx

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Roche plans to launch its first continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in Europe “in the coming weeks,” The Accu-Chek Smartguide has European approval for adults with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Roche will roll out the CGM in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. Accu-Chek Smartguide can be worn for 14 days, and features predictive algorithms that Roche hopes will differentiate it from competitors Abbott and Dexcom. However, it also must be calibrated at first using a finger stick, which the other brands don’t require.

 

Roche developed the CGM with three different prediction tools: A feature to predict the risk of low blood glucose within 30 minutes, a feature to forecast glucose levels over the next two hours, and a feature to predict hypoglycemia risk at night.

 

Pau Herrero, an algorithm and decision support tech lead at Roche, said the device provides a different picture than the trend arrows other CGMs use, which typically forecast glucose levels over the next 20 minutes. The predictions are based on multiple days of patient data using machine learning models.

The company is in “active discussions” with the Food and Drug Administration on bringing Accu-Chek Smartguide to the U.S., Moreiras said, adding that he “cannot commit to any timelines.”

https://www.medtechdive.com/news/roche-cgm-launch-europe/726863/

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Exciting news! iLet users can now invite friends and family to join their Bionic Circle to see their diabetes data and receive alerts. By accepting the invite and downloading our new Bionic Circle App, loved ones can monitor an iLet user’s CGM values, meal announcements, insulin doses, and alerts from anywhere.

 

To learn how to invite followers and accept an invite, visit: https://lnkd.in/ghigJKMt

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Diabetes Canada has unveiled the key findings of a first-of-its-kind national survey on how widespread stigma, judgement and discrimination is for those who live with diabetes and the impact of those social experiences on the quality of life for people with diabetes.

The survey shows that diabetes can not only negatively impact a person’s physical health but can also negatively affect their personal relationships, work or studies, leisure activities, financial situation, and emotional well-being.

 

In fact, nearly 90% of people living with type 1 diabetes and 70% of people living with type 2 diabetes experience shame and blame for having diabetes.

 

“As someone who lives with type 2 diabetes, I know first-hand how stigma can negatively impact the quality of life for people living with this condition in Canada,” says Laura Syron, President & CEO of Diabetes Canada. “We need to change the conversation around diabetes—the values, beliefs and language—so that people living with this condition can feel more accepted and understood. These feelings can dramatically improve the likelihood that people living with diabetes can receive the support and care they need to better their health outcomes and their quality of life.”

In the survey, key findings show how people living with diabetes must deal with unfair assumptions about what they can and cannot do, judgements if they consume specific foods, and being blamed for having diabetes.

40% of people with T1D never or rarely ask for support to help manage their diabetes when they need it.

 

56% of people with T2D never or rarely ask for support to help manage their diabetes when they need it.

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/diabetes-canada-releases-first-kind-101300695.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJIrWwjdye-ehrLNDt-LIGb5qTXaKDTIa8NWwiT7fKwFFgjDMN2nnINis6YfFePWP2ZA2DVYWXEIZQqRlQ4aKLFrYWgvw1jdI-t1n9kO6NIzdBCMXQNNCVl_S-75lDNip2SysHDJQmyqSc4wLjfDya3v9wwTWU-KgE_OqrPCTnlu

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Edgepark commercial

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This is National Glucose Awareness Week. Dexcom and Beyond Type 2 are teaming up for the new designation to encourage people to learn about the importance of glucose and its significant impact on overall health, especially for people with diabetes.

The news release says:

National Glucose Awareness Week will feature a variety of educational resources about the importance of glucose health and information about new, cutting-edge glucose biosensing technology.

That technology is CGM.. now available over the counter as Dexcom’s Stelo.

Get moving: Participate in a nationwide step challenge (invitation code: glucose) from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13 to help improve your glucose health.† Step challenge participants can register to participate from Sept. 23-29, 2024 and will have the chance to compete for prizes.

Get resources: Close the glucose knowledge gap with key educational resources from Beyond Type 2.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240923896101/en/Dexcom-Beyond-Type-2-and-Retta-Establish-National-Glucose-Awareness-Week-to-Close-the-Glucose-Knowledge-Gap?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark

 

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Attention diabetes camp organizers! You’re invited to apply for financial support for your need based scholarships. This is the Type 1 Diabetes Camps Project: 2025-2027 Campership Initiative

The initiative will also provide limited funds for selected camps to expand their revenue development efforts, funds for professional development and funds for low-income camper recruitment efforts and indirect costs.

The initiative is supported by $6 million in grant funding from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and $900 thousand in funding from Eli Lilly and Company over the next three years.

For more information about the RFP, please login and navigate to the publicly available RFPs: https://newventurefund.force.com/login

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