pharma
Video: Inside the market for GLP-1 copycats
Alex Hogan/STAT
If you're reading this newsletter, you probably already know about the blockbuster GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. But if you're fuzzy on what we mean when we write about the compounded versions often sold online, let me recommend the latest deep dive video from STAT's Alex Hogan.
Alex explains the loophole that lets certain pharmacies make generic versions of the name-brand drugs Ozempic and Wegovy due to a continued shortage. "We've not been here before," compounding expert Scott Brunner told Alex. "And so it really is a rare instance that we find ourselves in when this drug with such incredible demand is in such severe shortage." Watch the video.
cancer
New insight into how cancer can beat chemo
It's known that chemotherapy doesn't always work long-term for cancer patients, as tumor cells can expertly adapt to drugs. But less is known about how that happens. To find out, researchers scanned 3,000 cancer gene cells that are known to be involved with cell metabolism. They were particularly interested in how the level of nutrients in tumors can limit the effect of treatment. The study, published this morning in Nature, sheds light on how cells in glucose-limited tumors are already resistant to some drugs that aim to disrupt cancer metabolism.
Some drugs work by preventing cancer cells from making molecules that are an essential part of RNA and DNA. Those molecules (called pyrimidines) are needed to make more food for the cell and to reproduce. Without them, cancer cells can quickly starve and die. But it turns out that in a low-glucose environment, a cancer cell will stretch out its food supplies, consuming what it already has on hand at a slower rate, leading to a slower death.
In other experiments, researchers observed two proteins (BAX and BAK) that sit on the surface of the cancer cell mitochondria. When activated, those proteins disintegrate the powerhouse of the cell, leading to cell death. But low-glucose tumor microenvironments weren't able to activate the proteins. It's common for solid tumors to have limited glucose because the cells are eating it faster than they can import it, as STAT's Angus Chen explained to me. The researchers hope the results could be used to develop more effective treatments in the future.
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