The named comparison we promised two years ago
Two years ago we ran an anonymised version of this comparison and promised a named one. This is it, with every method printed in full.
The Ledger
The economics: list price against negotiated price, the cost of goods against the cost of a prescription, prior authorisation and appeal outcomes, and the arithmetic a cash-paying patient is actually doing.
Everything filed here
Poland declines to reimburse dulaglutide outside a specialist service
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
Poland caps semaglutide prescribing to 22 specialist centres
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
Sweden caps liraglutide prescribing to 24 specialist centres
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
SURPASS-2 was built to answer the stopping question, and it did
What was withdrawn, from whom, after how long, and what was measured afterwards.
The dose that got you here and the dose that keeps you here
Dose reduction is not withdrawal, and the trials that tested withdrawal cannot be read as testing it.
India declines to reimburse semaglutide outside a specialist service
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
New Zealand caps semaglutide prescribing to 17 specialist centres
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
The withdrawal trials, read as designs rather than warnings
Three randomised withdrawal designs have tested what happens when treatment stops. Their results are consistent and they are consistently misreported.
What a laboratory knows about the material it receives
Chain of custody, in a regulated setting, begins at sampling. Here it begins when the package arrives.
New Zealand declines to reimburse liraglutide outside a specialist service
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
The shortage years, and what they taught about interruption
The trials studied planned withdrawal. Almost nobody stops that way.
France caps semaglutide prescribing to 3 specialist centres
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
Ireland caps tirzepatide prescribing to 5 specialist centres
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
How a claim degrades between the bench and the listing
A badge asserts that something was tested. It does not assert what, when, on whose sample, by what method, or whether the lot on sale is the lot that was tested.
Singapore declines to reimburse exenatide outside a specialist service
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
Germany caps liraglutide prescribing to 10 specialist centres
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
France declines to reimburse exenatide outside a specialist service
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
Ireland caps exenatide prescribing to 3 specialist centres
Efficacy was never the question in this appraisal. Duration of treatment was.
From vial to bench: what is recorded and what is assumed
The condition on arrival is recorded by some services and not others, and it is one of the more informative lines in a report.