• California: Last week, Viking Therapeutics announced that its experimental weight-loss drug VK2735 succeeded in a phase 2 study, leading to as much as 12.2% weight loss after 13 weeks. The company also noted that the rate of weight loss did not plateau, which suggests that further weight loss could be achieved in a longer-term study. However, despite meeting its trial goal, significant side effects and discontinuation rates led to disappointment among investors. In the trial, there was a substantial rate of gastrointestinal distress, and 28% of participants who received VK2735 discontinued treatment compared to 18% of participants who received a placebo. Participants who received the highest dose of the medication also had the highest discontinuation rates at approximately 38%. According to Jared Holz, an analyst at Mizuho, Viking had long been seen as an appealing potential target for mergers and acquisitions, but the findings from the trial "probably shutters hope for Viking [as] a bigtime player in the oral obesity market over the near to medium term." (DeAngelis, STAT+ [subscription required], 8/19)
• District of Columbia: According to a new review conducted by HHS' Office of Inspector General (OIG), Medicare patients have increasingly checked themselves out of the hospital against medical advice (AMA) since 2006, with a temporary spike during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the review, OIG analyzed previously compiled claims data from 2006 to 2018, as well as new claims for stays between 2019 and 2023. Overall, OIG found that the rate of Medicare patients leaving the hospital AMA has increased by almost 50% since 2006, going from 0.68% to 0.99% in 2019. During the pandemic, the rate rose to a high of 1.17% before returning to 1% in 2023. According to OIG, these rate increases are noteworthy since Medicare patients who left AMA were over twice as likely to be readmitted to the hospital or die within 30 days of discharge compared to those who had been discharged to their homes. Although no specific recommendations were included in the review, OIG suggested that "tailored interventions that address the particular challenges that patients leaving AMA face, such as communication barriers, mental health/substance use comorbidities and lack of established primary care" could be potential solutions. (Muoio, Fierce Healthcare, 8/22)
• Illinois: According to a new study published in JAMA, over 60% of active U.S. drug manufacturing sites are in the path of hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters, which could pose risks to the supply chain. For the study, researchers looked at almost 11,000 active U.S. facilities from 2019 to 2024 and found that 62.8% were in counties where at least one climate-related disaster had been declared. On average, 33.8% of these facilities were in the path of a climate-related disaster every year, with a high of 43.9% in 2020. The researchers also noted that climate disasters are not just a hypothetical threat. Just last year, Hurricane Helene damaged a Baxter manufacturing facility in North Carolina, which led to an almost yearlong shortage of IV fluid. A similar shortage also occurred after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. "Drug shortages following disasters demonstrate how the pharmaceutical supply chain is not yet resilient to climate-related disruptions," the researchers wrote. "… These findings underscore the importance of recognizing climate-related vulnerabilities and the urgent need for supply chain transparency, for strategic allocation of production, and for disaster risk management strategies to prevent healthcare disruptions in the U.S." (Henderson, MedPage Today, 8/20)

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