← Diabetes Connections | Type 1 Diabetes
Diabetes Connections | Type 1 Diabetes
In the News... Trump RX, T1D at the Olympics & Superbowl, Ozempic pill launches soon, and more!
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Support for this episode comes from Dexcom. Here's what really matters. Dexcom G7 is clinically proven to lower A1C, reduce highs and lows, and increase time in range. And we all know that the more time in range, the better you feel. Benny started using Dexcom at age 9 and it's hard to remember the big swings in blood sugar he had before we started using a cgm. I mean, we did it, but it was hard to watch him just feel so crummy. Highs and lows still going to happen, of course, but with Dexcom G7 we're able to avoid those big unexpected swings. And Dexcom is the number one covered CGM brand with most users paying $20 or less per month, which is huge. If you're looking for a CGM that not only gives numbers, but helps improve them, visit Dexcom.com and see how Dexcom G7 could fit into your life. Foreign. Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections. I'm your host Stacey Sims. We aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. This is an in the news episode where we bring you the top diabetes stories and headlines happening now. Couple of quick reminders. First, you can always find the sources and links and a transcript and more information for for every story mentioned here in the show Notes And I also wanna let you know that we are just over one week away from our first Mom's Night out event of the year. While the plans are all set, you know, the speakers, the vendors, the raffles, it's all ready to go. But it is always amazing to me how many people hear of these events last minute. I mean there's nothing I can do about that and it's fine. They're more than welcome. But if you are thinking about attending a future event, registration is open for Nashville and that is March 6th and 7th. Detroit in September. There's no need to wait. We even have a pay half now, pay half later option for all of these events. We will open up Seattle hopefully by the end of this month. Seattle's going to be in the fall as well and we've got Club 1921 events for healthcare professionals and patient leaders in six cities this year. You can find out much more@diabetes-connections.com and and click on the Events tab. All right, our top story this week Gotta be a quick shout out to some incredible T1D athletes. We had two in the super bowl this past weekend, Chad Muma of the New England Patriots and Logan Brown of the Seattle Seahawks. And there are at least two athletes with Type one at the Winter Olympics. Hannah Schmidt competes in ski cross for Canada. She was diagnosed with type one at age 12. And Anna Fernstedt, a Czech skeleton racer diagnosed as an adult in 2022 after she'd already been to several Olympics. Do you know of any others? Let me know and we wish them all the best. Late last week, the government website trumprx.gov went live. Now, the site doesn't sell prescription drugs. It lets you look up your medications and then navigate to buy them elsewhere. Trumprx does include warnings that the site may not be the best option to save money. Each product page says if you have insurance, check your copay first. It might be even lower. The site's prices are aimed at people who lack insurance coverage for their medication or would face higher out of pocket costs if they used their coverage. The only insulin listed right now is Lilly's Insulin Lispro. Trumprx only lists vials, but it is the same price as you'd find through Lilly's Insulin Value Program, another diabetes medication for Ziga. If you had an insurance copay of $25 a month for that, you would be paying $182 on Trump Rx. As you can imagine, this is complicated and, as with most of our healthcare system, may be very good in some cases, not much help in others. I'd suggest calling your local pharmacist, especially if you use Medicare or Medicaid, or checking in with your human resource department if your insurance is through your employer. Novo Nordisk is launching some doses of its oral semaglutide for diabetes under the brand name Ozempic Pill in the second quarter of this year. The company says the FDA has approved Ozempic tablets in three different doses and they say the name is intended to quote help patients and healthcare professionals more easily recognize the available treatment options. Semaglutide tablets have actually been available under the brand name Rubelsis for diabetes since 2019, but with different dosing. The FDA had approved the new doses based on a bioequivalence study and the clinical trial data for Rybelsis. Possible new way to identify and track the progress of type 1 before clinical onset Recent study published in Science Advances described the application of subcutaneous microporous scaffolds. These are inserted under the skin and have been shown to identify changes in cancer, multiple sclerosis and now type 1 by capturing changes of immune cells over the course of a disease. This is a proof of concept study in mice, so very early days here a large global genetic study shows that many key drivers of type 2 operate outside the bloodstream. This was a huge study, 2.5 million people worldwide, comparing patterns across seven tissues tied to diabetes and four global ancestry groups. These researchers say a key challenge in diabetes research is that the biology behind rising blood sugar does not play out the same way in every part of the body. They say including people from many backgrounds matters since genetic clues that stand out in one population may be invisible in another. The study lays out a roadmap for future research aimed at understanding the biological pathways of type 2 diabetes. Express Scripts settled the US FTC claims that its insulin pricing practices violated antitrust, trust and consumer protection laws and agree to changes aimed at lowering costs. The settlement allows the FTC to pare down a case brought by the former Biden Administration against Cigna's Express Scripts, UnitedHealth Group's Optum and CVS Caremark. The case against Optum and Caremark is ongoing. The 10 year agreement restricts Express Scripts ability to engage in practices critics say contribute to high costs like pocketing rebate payments from drug makers based on the list price of drugs. The FTC estimates the agreement could save patients as much as $7 billion over the next 10 years. Congress passes bipartisan legislation to extend this special diabetes program, a cornerstone of federal investment in Type 1 research. President signed the legislation. It is now law. It extends the SDP through December of this year and increases funding from $160 million to $200 million annually. A recent study shows that of the nearly $3.6 billion invested into the SDP by Congress since the program was established, the federal government has realized $50 billion in healthcare savings through improved health outcomes. Bunch of news from the technology companies. Dexcom is rolling out what they're calling AI enabled enhancements to stelo, expanded smart food logging, more ways to meal track, including text search, barcode scanning or taking a photo of the meal, and a redesigned Daily Insights feature. All these features are going to launch nationwide in the coming weeks. BetaBionics receives a warning letter from the FDA following an inspection last year and now the company is disclosing this. The FDA has not published this yet. They say that the warning letter concerns, quote, nonconformities with the company's quality management system, medical device reporting and correction and removals. They say they have already taken actions to improve the processes. Sequel MedTech is reviewing co founder Dean Kamen's ties to Jeffrey Epstein after recently released documents revealed new details about the longstanding relationship between the two men. The documents show that Kamen visited Epstein's island and remained in contact with him for years after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes involving minors. Kamen has not been accused of any wrongdoing. In a statement, SQL MedTech says the company is aware of the documents and quote SQL's board of directors has unanimously decided to engage an external law firm to review these disclosures and provide recommendations aligned with our mission to serve people living with diabetes. Kamen has not yet issued a statement. Abbott reports 860 serious injuries linked to the recall of some of his glucose monitoring sensor. We told you about this recall late last year. This is an FDA update. Abbott says the sensors can provide incorrect glucose readings over extended periods of time. They say they have identified and resolved the cause of the issue, which relates to one production line among several that make Libre 3 and Libre 3 sensors. We've got news from Medtronic and Sensonics about the Eversense365 and a first from Nick Jonas right after this. At one of our recent Mom's Night out events, the Omnipod team was on site asking moms about their experience with the OmniPod 5 automated insulin delivery system. It was so much fun and it was great to hear what the moms have to say. Here's what Angela, mom to Dominic told us.
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My son is 10 years old and he uses an Omnipod 5. It's the only pump he has used since he was diagnosed. It's been a life changing piece of equipment for him to have and he's a competitive swimmer. He is able to keep it on in the pool and we don't have to worry about disconnecting. So we absolutely love Omnipod and it has really just made a big difference in his life.
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Want to try Omnipod 5 for yourself? Request a free Omnipod 5 starter kit today by visiting omnipod.com diabetesconnections Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Foreign updates from Medtronic the FDA has cleared the MiniMed 780G system with the Instinct Sensor made by Abbott for people with type 2 and Medicare has also now approved coverage for the Instinct sensor for use with the mini med 780G system. They're also launching what they're calling the MiniMed 780G system pump evaluation Program. This gives individuals living with diabetes the ability to try the full system at no cost for 30 days. This includes the pump, the sensor, one month of infusion sets and reservoirs, everything but the insulin and they will contact your doctor for you to get a prescription and get the process rolling. The Sensonics Eversense 365 CGM receives CE Mark approval, that is European clearance. This comes on the heels of the launch of Eversense 365 with SQL MedTech's Twist Pump. That's the first pump integration for the CGM. Sensonics plans to launch Eversense 365 in Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden in the coming months, and they continue to work toward an FDA Investigational Device Exemption submission for their next generation Gemini by the end of this year, Gemini is totally under the skin, no transmitter on the outside. Huge shout out to Dr. Emily Blum, who just accomplished riding 100 miles in Antarctica for Breakthrough T1D as she's been writing and fundraising for Breakthrough for 10 years now and has the goal of riding 100 miles on every continent. She's already done it in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and now Antarctica, so only Africa and South America remain. Dr. Blum has no direct connection to type 1 diabetes, but she is a surgeon and deeply involved with medical innovation. A very fun follow up. Last year we told you the story of Elise and Zach. They were featured in People magazine with the headline Young Couple with Diabetes meet online from 3,000 miles away. This all started because Omnipod featured Elise on their Instagram and Zach, who also uses an Omnipod messaged her quote hi, I think you're my type. Well this past weekend a short film debuted at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival called My Type, featuring a take on their story. I am told that in addition to being about Type one, it features people living with Type one, music created by people with living with Type one and on and on. Very cool. Thanks to the folks at Omnipod for bringing this to my attention. We will try to do a follow up and I'm going to try to find out where we can watch this movie. I don't think it has been released yet and it's a short so it might be tough to find but we will track it down. You should also know that Elise and Zach are still together and finally Nick Jonas becomes the first artist ever to wear a CGM on an album cover. His solo album Sunday Best was out as of February 6th and the release I got says this marks a powerful step forward in normalizing diabetes and raising awareness for the condition on a global scale. This moment adds to the growing visibility of diabetes in pop culture along milestones like a type 1 diabetes Barbie and Pixar characters wearing diabetes technology. Whenever I get a release from the Nick Jonas folks, I'm always asking for an interview. So far, no go, but we will keep trying. And that is it for in the news. If you liked what you heard, please share it. And we'll be back next week with a long format interview episode. I'm talking to the folks behind Grownup T1DS. They say most diabetes organizations and resources are geared towards kids and young adults. Well, what happens after you grow up a little bit more? We're going to find out more about their mission and how you can get involved. Thanks to my editor, John Buchenis from Audio Editing Solutions. And thank you for listening. I'm Stacey Sims. I'll see you back here soon. Until then, be kind to yourself. Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacy Sims Media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged. From the very beginning, they mean everything to you, and that means you do anything for them, especially if they're at risk. So when it comes to type 1 diabetes, screen it like you mean it. Even if just one person in your family has type one, you are up to 15 times more likely to get it, too. Screen it like you mean it, because one blood test could help you spot type 1 long before you need insulin. Talk to your doctor about how to screen for type 1 diabetes, because the more you know, the more you can do. So don't wait. Visit screenfortype1.com to learn more. Again, that's screenfortype. One combination.