AEI panel discussion: deep and nuanced

APC CEO Scott Brunner was a panelist Wednesday at a roundtable hosted by the American Enterprise Institute — the somewhat questionably named, “Considering the Safety of the Medicine Supply amid Growing Popularity of Unapproved Versions of GLP-1.” 

Panelists tackled issues such as how patients can know whether online companies dispensing GLP-1 drugs are using legitimate sources for their API. They also touched on the regulatory landscape, and, of course, the role of compounding pharmacies.

You can watch the roundtable here, or click here to jump to where Scott starts speaking. Or you can read the transcript (note: voice-to-text, so expect lots of errors, especially drug names).

Here are a couple of our favorite Scott quotes:

Education (that we wish wasn’t necessary): It's funny; I interact with reporters occasionally who seem to think that compounding has arisen from the GLP-1 frenzy. Compounding has been around for generations — centuries, even. 

And perhaps our favorite, fostering a bit of situational awareness: 

“I have a member … who was approached by a hospital in Massachusetts a few years ago. The hospital was treating pediatric sickle cell patients. The hydroxyurea formulation commercially available is in a pill that could practically choke a horse. I exaggerate only slightly. A 5-year-old with sickle cell can't swallow that drug. So, [he makes] a hydroxyurea suspension. [...]

“It's interesting to me that the title of this panel is about unapproved drugs because, yes, technically, compounded drugs are unapproved. But when you're talking about hydroxyurea suspension for pediatric sickle cell patients, nobody’s saying, ‘Hey, those are unapproved’.”