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As of January 1st, 2025, Medicare has been offering a new service known as the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan to help manage the cost of drugs. To find out more about this plan or to create a payment plan, click the link below or call  1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). 

"The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is a new payment option in the prescription drug law that works with your current drug coverage to help you manage your out-of-pocket Medicare Part D drug costs by spreading them across the calendar year (January-December). Starting in 2025, anyone with a Medicare drug plan or Medicare health plan with drug coverage (like a Medicare Advantage Plan with drug coverage) can use this payment option. All plans offer this payment option and participation is voluntary."

 Article by Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, UCHealth

" Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have banned the sale of compounded weight loss drugs including Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy and Zepbound.

And earlier this month, federal health authorities issued a warning about counterfeit versions of Ozempic that have been circulating throughout the U.S."

" For example, natural disasters have directly impacted drug manufacturing in recent years. A tornado in North Carolina in July 2023 damaged a Pfizer plant responsible for producing 15 drugs. Just over a year later, Hurricane Helene disrupted operations at a Baxter International facility that manufactures IV fluids. Even global weather events have played a role—extreme heat and humidity in Sweden in 2018 forced a pharmaceutical company to reduce production at one of its factories.

In another instance, a 2022 FDA inspection of a facility in India—responsible for producing about half of the U.S. supply of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin—revealed quality control issues. Production was halted, resulting in a nationwide shortage.

Demand spikes, paired with regulatory hurdles, have also contributed to recent shortages. ADHD medications and GLP-1 drugs for weight loss have been in particularly short supply due to rising usage."

Article by  Salayna M. Abdallah, MA, BS,Bryce L. Tipton, BS,Joel W. Hughes, PhD 

"ADHD diagnoses continue to grow rapidly and stimulant prescriptions have nearly doubled in the past decade, rising by more than 10% in the past few years. There is only so much pharmaceutical companies can do when demand severely outweighs supply. The over diagnosis of ADHD may be the main reason for the shortage."
 

Click on the button below to be redirected to the FDA Drug Database in regard to Drug Shortages.