Short Takes: June 27, 2025

This week in Compounding Interests. Scott talks about the shortage of bright-line compliance standards in FDA’s “Insanitary Conditions” guidance — which is less actual guidance and more a set of examples. As he puts it, “You can't color inside the lines when there aren't any.”

We’ll believe it when we see it. Major health insurers have (once again) super-duper pinkie promised that they’ll streamline their prior-authorization processes. Honest! Of course, as Time explained, “Health insurance companies have made similar promises to revamp prior authorization in the past — in both 2018 and 2023, some insurers pledged to improve the process. But experts criticized the companies for failing to make substantial changes.” We would quote Ronald Reagan and say “Trust, but verify,” but honestly we’ll just stick with verify at this point, thanks.

There’s nothing simple about drug prices. APC PFM member Jay Bhaumik talked about “Breaking down medicine costs,” in the Dallas Business Journal, where he explains that there’s no simple formula for the price of a drug. Everything from research to trials to marketing (and more) figures into the final figure, and even that price tag isn’t necessarily what anyone actually pays.

GLP-1s’ demographic skew. This may or may not be surprising: Women (especially those aged 40 to 64) are being prescribed GLP-1 drugs at much higher rates than men are. Why? A few reasons: Menopause means changes to fat distribution. Men tend to lose weight through “lifestyle intervention” more easily. And of course there’s the potential for more social pressure — looking at you, Instagram.

Fine — we’ll do it ourselves. A loose group of “Professional medical societies, pharmacists, state health officials and vaccine manufacturers, as well as a new advocacy group,” are planning an end run around official policy to offer vaccine guidance they say is based on science, not debunked conspiracy theories or advice overheard on TikTok. Their goal: To have health insurers “continue covering shots based on professional societies’ guidance instead of the federal government’s.” (After all, from an insurance company’s perspective, a few dollars for a vaccine is a lot less expensive than thousands for treating an illness.)

Compounding’s for men, too. Women’s health and pharmacy compounding often go hand-in-hand, but don’t forget — and don’t let your patients forget — that compounded medications can play an important role in men’s health, too. Point ’em to the latest article from the Partnership for Personalized Prescriptions: “Personalized Solutions: The Role of Compounded Medications in Men's Health.”