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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
GLP 1 Breakthroughs, Global Leadership Moves, and Hospital Deal Activity with Molly Gamble
00:07:08
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott Becket with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Thrilled today to be joined by Molly Gamble. Molly's the extraordinary vice president of editorial affairs at Becker's Healthcare, and she joins us regularly to talk about what stories she's watching most closely in healthcare. Molly, can you take it away and tell us about a couple of stories that you're watching closely currently?
- [00:20]
B
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Scott. It's good to be back with you. I've got three diverse headlines out of our newsroom just this week that I thought were pretty interesting and there's stories behind the story, so I thought we could touch on those. But the first is this new oral GLP1 and how the race just got a little bit more competitive. This week the FDA approved Eli Lilly's daily weight loss pill, Fonda, making it only the second oral GLP1 cleared for obesity in the US that comes after Novo Nordisk got their pill approved back in December. And what makes this approval a little bit more interesting is that it cleared the FDA in just under 50 days after Eli Lilly submitted its application. It's the fifth approval under this new program, this new pilot, the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher Program that launched in June. So Foundao, if you take a step back, second oral GLP1 now on the market in the US but also the fastest approval for new molecular drugs since 2002. This is going to go live on Lilly's direct to consumer site, 149amonth for the starting dose before rolling out to retail pharmacies and other telehealth platforms. And Eli Lilly's looking into this drug and investigating it for type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension and other conditions too. Scott.
- [01:36]
A
But that's amazing. At 150amonth, that's amazing. I mean, that's game changing, isn't it?
- [01:40]
B
Yeah. When you and I were speaking on GLP1s, you know, a year and a half ago, like this was not on the table. So it's interesting to see even now the oral options available. Now there's, you know, a two horse race for oral GLP1s that just got more competitive this week. So this competition seems to be a really good thing for consumers. So we'll see how this continues to play out.
- [02:04]
A
That's amazing. That's literally fantastic. And I love to see the FDA moving more quickly. That's fantastic, too. Great. And let's hope it goes well and people do well with the oral GLP1 drug and so forth. Tell us what else you're watching closely because that, that, that GLP one at 150amonth, I mean people paying 3, 5, 600 for the Zeppelin, the other, the other shots, you bring this down to 150, 200amonth, starts to be more. It starts to be the same cost as a nice gym membership for a lot of people and probably equally effective or part of their health routine. That's fantastic.
- [02:40]
B
Yeah. And I should mention Scott, that that's the direct to consumer option. So it starts at $25 per month for those with commercial health insurance and then 149 for self pay. So again, this was not an option for people when we talked about GLP1s not too long ago. But I think when it comes to direct to consumer access, free home delivery and in those price points, it's moving in a, it has some serious momentum for how people are able to access this drug 100%.
- [03:10]
A
That's fascinating. And tell us what else are you watching currently? Mal?
- [03:14]
B
Yep. Cleveland Clinic London is shifting around some leadership. This is close to Cleveland Clinic London. Its campus opened in 2022. Across the pond. It'll be sending one of its senior most leaders to the London site. This is going to be Barry Ridgeway. Dr. Barry Ridgeway. She's a longtime clinic leader, Dr. Ridgeway. She's been there for nearly two decades. She trained at UCSF UC San Diego, completed her fellowship at Cleveland Clinic and then has led the system's OB GYN Institute and global access initiatives. So really an insider's insider, the outgoing London President, Dr. Rob Lorenz. He's going to move into a new role managing Cleveland Clinic's relationship with the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford. So staying in that UK orbit and then back home in Cleveland, the search for a new enterprise chief of staff kicks off immediately. So Scott, I just wanted to note this development. Cleveland Clinic London has really in a short time established itself as a top tier private hospital in the UK and tapping a liter of Dr. Ridgway's caliber signals the system is really doubling down on that market. Also interesting that its outgoing leader isn't returning to the US necessarily or leaving Cleveland Clinic, but will be really more tightly managing this relationship with Oxford. So something to note and I think we're always interested in how these global footprints of domestic health systems are maturing and developing. And this leadership change is worth noting. No.
- [04:40]
A
Fantastic and fascinating when we look up to Cleveland Clinic and what they do and fascinating to see the changes there. So it's sort of fascinating to see some real turnover at Cleveland Clinical London and Also to see this oral GLP one thing come out and really start to move, that's going to be fascinating. That's as you start to get down to 100 to 200amonth, this starts to become game changers in terms of the availability to a lot more people and a real positive from, you know, I still, I know it's still quite expensive, but getting closer and closer to making sense from a health equity perspective that this becomes widely available not just to people that are wealthier and can afford it. That's I think fantastic.
- [05:15]
B
Mm, completely agree. And I'm also interested in like what we'll see those investigations will bear out when it comes to those other health needs and perhaps other conditions it could be effective for. The last thing I'll note is just hospital deals. We continue to see some lumpy activity here, I would say. You know, we saw CHS this week complete a bigger sale. A 180 bed hospital offloaded to Huntsville Hospital Health System, a more local health system that now has 15 hospitals in Alabama. That was a $459 million deal. CHS, this is not unusual. The system has been for years now really trimming down its hospital count and reconfiguring its portfolio. But as much as you've seen CHS and investor owned system offloading, others are buying up. LifePoint Health has agreed to acquire eight hospitals from Scion Health. Those are in Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Idaho, Wisconsin. So really a diverse area. And then back in February, Prime Healthcare looked to and acquired Lewistown based Central Maine Healthcare. So taken together, just some interesting activities. Scott, you've got some of the big investor owned national systems like CHS continuing to restructure and even nonprofits like Ascension trying to offload acute care hospitals While other operators, LifePoint, prime, even local systems like Huntsville are stepping in to scoop those up and expand. So I just wanted to make note of that deal that went through today. It was a bigger price point than some of the others we report on at an individual level as of late.
- [06:47]
A
Fantastic. No, Fascinating to see and fascinating to see how community health systems has reshaped itself. What Prime Healthcare is doing and all these other systems are doing really, really remarkable. Molly, as always, thank you so much for joining us on the Beckers Healthcare podcast. Remarkable leadership. Can't wait to visit with you on our CEO advisory call next week. Thank you so much for joining us.
- [07:05]
B
Thank you so much, Scott.