Bulletin Today
APhA staff
Medicare will pay for weight loss drugs under new deal
Beginning in mid-2026, Medicare will pay $149 to $245 per month for GLP-1 receptor agonist obesity drugs semaglutide (Wegovy—Novo Nordisk) and tirzepatide (Zepbound—Eli Lilly), depending on dosage. Meanwhile, patients paying out of pocket will be able to access discounted rates via the TrumpRx.gov website, with prices averaging about $350 or less per month and dropping to $245 monthly over 2 years.
As part of the new deal with the White House, the drug makers will also receive expedited FDA reviews and access to the Medicare market, which includes about 70 million older adults in the United States.
Administration officials said about 10% of Medicare beneficiaries will qualify based on BMI and conditions such as prediabetes and heart disease, paying a monthly copay of $50. Medicaid recipients may gain access in 2027 through a pilot program, officials said.
Recent survey findings suggest that as Americans increasingly use GLP-1s for weight loss, the U.S. obesity rate is dropping.
According to recent poll results from the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, 12.4% of respondents currently use the drugs for weight loss—compared with 5.8% in February 2024. In turn, the survey said, obesity rates among adults nationwide have fallen to 37% from 3 years ago when the rate peaked at 39.9%.
Since GLP-1s were introduced, obesity levels have declined most among Americans aged 40 to 64 years and among women versus men.
While the drugs have delivered breakthroughs to many patients battling obesity, experts noted that the costly medications are still largely out of reach for people who lack health insurance or whose plans do not cover GLP-1 drugs or only cover them for patients with diabetes. ■
UCSF announces PharmD pathway program for techs
Roughly 75% of pharmacy technicians in the United States have ambitions to become pharmacists, and a new initiative at the University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy is trying to make that a reality for more technicians.
The pharmacy school’s new PharmTech to PharmD Pathway Program aims to elevate the number of technicians to pharmacists and, hopefully, alleviate the trend toward pharmacy “deserts” by stabilizing the state’s pharmacy workforce.
“This program is really to reach out to those who might think that going to pharmacy school is not in the cards for them,” said Sharon L. Youmans, school of pharmacy executive vice dean, in a news release.
The yearlong agenda prepares prospects through course road maps, monthly seminars, and insights and advice from faculty and school of pharmacy graduates. Anyone who has held a pharmacy technician position within the past 5 years can take advantage of the free program, and those who complete it, satisfying the prerequisite course requirements, are guaranteed an interview with UCSF’s PharmD program. ■
Study of Medicare population finds recombinant zoster vaccine effective
In evaluating the efficacy of recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV), an analysis revealed vaccine effectiveness of 56.1% against herpes zoster (HZ), HZ opthalmicus, or postherpetic neuralgia, with immunocompromised recipients deriving comparable benefit with immunocompetent individuals.
RZV gained preference over live zoster vaccine (ZVL) for the prevention of shingles beginning in 2018.
According to the results, published October 14, 2025, in Annals of Internal Medicine, individuals who had been vaccinated with ZVL within the past 10 years also benefited from RZV, which the data also showed were more effective with two doses than one.
The study population included a sample of Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older who had not previously been immunized with RZV. Participants received one or two doses of RZV, with outcomes stratified according to past receipt of ZVL and immunocompetence status.
According to authors of the study, which was backed by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, a second dose of the vaccine conferred an additional 67.9% effectiveness against HZ endpoints. ■
Do antidepressants affect cardiometabolic and other physiological parameters?
Changes in weight, heart rate, and BP were common with antidepressant use, investigators of a study published November 1, 2025, in The Lancet reported.
To better understand the physiological adverse effects of antidepressants, researchers conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis of 151 randomized studies and 17 FDA reports. Cardiometabolic outcomes with use of 30 different antidepressants were compared with placebo.
The results, based on data from 58,534 participants, suggested that different medications result in different physiological effects—particularly with respect to cardiometabolic metrics. Notably, medications such as maprotiline and amitriptyline were associated with clinically meaningful weight gain in nearly one-half of patients prescribed them, while use of paroxetine, duloxetine, desvenlafaxine, and venlafaxine correlated to weight reduction but elevated levels of total cholesterol.
Additionally, higher concentrations of AST, ALT, and alkaline phosphatase were documented with duloxetine, desvenlafaxine, and levomilnacipran use, although the increases in enzyme levels were not deemed clinically significant.
According to the authors, the findings may aid in identifying the most appropriate antidepressant for a patient. Treatment guidelines, they emphasized, should be revised to reflect differences in physiological risk. However, choice of antidepressant should be determined by clinical presentation and patient, caregiver, and clinician preferences. ■
Study confirms guidelines for early food, peanut introduction
Backed by NIH and the Food Allergy Fund, researchers used EHR data across multiple states to gauge the effect of recommendations for early peanut introduction.
Within the last decade and a half, scientists have gravitated toward the theory that immunoglobulin E-mediated food allergy (IgE-FA) can be avoided by introducing offending foods to the gut during the first years of life. The concept gained real traction in 2021 when allergy and immunology association experts agreed that both peanut and egg should be given to babies at about age 6 months.
For the NIH study, logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards modeling, and interrupted time series analysis were used to calculate the cumulative incidence of IgE-FA and/or atopic dermatitis in children aged 0 to 3 years old during 2016, before the new guidance and addendum guidelines were implemented, and in 2021, after they were put in place.
The data reflected a meaningful drop in the cumulative incidence and risk of development of peanut and any IgE-FA allergy in the period after the guidelines were published compared with the period before.
“Future studies should not only monitor IgE-FA epidemiology longitudinally but also delineate the specific feeding practices of families; these may help characterize the timing, frequency, and dose of foods associated with optimal protection against food allergy in children,” wrote the study authors, who published the research October 20, 2025, in Pediatrics. ■