Ro launches GLP-1 supply tracker to assist patients navigate shortages

Telehealth company Ro on Wednesday launched a latest tracker to assist patients find a preferred class of weight reduction and diabetes drugs called GLP-1s amid shortages of those treatments within the U.S.

The provision tracker could possibly be a beneficial tool for a lot of Americans scrambling to get their hands on GLP-1s, corresponding to Novo Nordisk‘s weight reduction injection Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic. Demand for those medications has far outpaced supply over the past 12 months, forcing Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, the dominant players out there, to take a position heavily to scale up manufacturing.

The tracker goals to make GLP-1 supply information more transparent and accessible for everybody, no matter whether or not they are enrolled in any of Ro’s programs. The corporate is one in every of several digital health firms offering weight reduction programs that may give users a GLP-1 prescription and access to coaching and other services. 

The tracker is an interactive tool that provides people real-time supply information by drug, dose size and pharmacy location. Existing drug shortage databases, including one managed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, often don’t share localized data. 

“We’re attempting to make it as easy as possible for patients and providers to get a snapshot of what is available, what’s not, and do this within the fastest way,” Ro co-founder and CEO Zachariah Reitano told CNBC in an interview. 

He added that the GLP-1 shortages feel like a “national health-care crisis.” 

“I do not think that individuals are fully registering that lifesaving and life-altering medications that may benefit well over 100 million people within the U.S. are currently on a major shortage, and that patients every month are having trouble,” Reitano said.

Ro selected to make the tool free for anyone to make use of because a “basic inventory management system” for GLP-1s doesn’t exist, making it a significant contribution to the broader community that relies on those medications, in accordance with Reitano. He added that opening up the tracker to everyone also makes it more likely for each Ro patients and folks not enrolled in the corporate’s programs to access GLP-1s.

Anyone, including doctors, can submit an update to Ro’s tracker by filling out a report about availability or a shortage of a GLP-1 at a particular pharmacy of their area. Users have the choice to routinely report that information to the FDA. 

Ro will update the tracker based by itself supply data, which is generated when the corporate’s patients log that they’ve successfully picked up their medication at a pharmacy. Ro may also update the tracker with the most recent information from the FDA, in accordance with the corporate.

With a view to be sure that a drugs is absolutely in shortage, Reitano said the tracker aspects in a mixture of the speed, location and variety of submissions. One report over a period of two months won’t influence the tracker, for example.

Reitano said Ro has been constructing the GLP-1 tracker for about two months. The corporate hasn’t been collaborating with the FDA directly, but providing the agency more real-time data may help it keep its shortage list as up up to now as possible, he said.

This, in turn, means doctors will have the ability to make more informed decisions about the perfect medication to prescribe to patients, Reitano said

“If that list is outdated to reality, then you definitely’re going to put in writing a prescription assuming that the patient is in a position to get access to it,” Reitano said. “They don’t seem to be or they could have the ability to start out but not proceed, and that causes disruptions of their treatment.” 

Individuals can enroll to receive automated email alerts about when a particular GLP-1 drug becomes available at a close-by pharmacy. The tracker also alerts patients about changes to the availability of a GLP-1 on the FDA’s drug shortage database. 

The alerts include instructions to request that a pharmacy transfer their prescription to a different location with supply in stock. Any patient may message Ro’s care team to transfer their prescriptions on their behalf.

Consequently, the corporate launched a GLP-1 program called the Ro Body Program early last 12 months.

Ro can prescribe medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, and it also offers compounded versions of GLP-1s if the branded versions are in shortage. Compounded GLP-1s are custom-made alternatives to brand drugs designed to fulfill a particular patient’s needs.

Since launching the Body Program, Ro has grow to be all too aware of the challenges that may arise from a scarcity of supply. The corporate temporarily paused promoting for this system due to shortages last 12 months, and it offered refunds and credits to patients who weren’t in a position to pick up their medication inside 30 days of getting a prescription. 

Reitano said the corporate made greater than 50,000 calls between July and August last 12 months to attempt to transfer prescriptions to different pharmacies. 

Reitano hopes the tracker will make it easier for patients and providers to search out GLP-1 supply and inform the FDA about shortages in real time, especially as demand for the medications grows much more. 

But he said his “biggest hope” is that Ro’s supply tracker will grow to be “useless” three years from now as more GLP-1 supply comes onto the market and alleviates shortages. 

“That is higher for us, it’s higher for patients, it’s higher for the health-care system as well,” Reitano told CNBC.