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The National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) and 166 national organizations recently signed a letter to Senate leadership advocating for increased access to buprenorphine, an FDA-approved medication for opioid use disorder (OUD). They urged US Senate to pass the bipartisan 

Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act

“In the midst of a deadly and accelerating overdose crisis, the MAT Act is a common-sense solution that will prevent overdoses, increase access to treatment, and reduce stigma,” the letter reads.

Buprenorphine, along with methadone and extended-release naltrexone, is 1 of 3 medications currently approved by the FDA to treat OUD and is considered the “gold standard” treatment. It also keeps individuals with OUD from returning to illicit drug use—and to jail.

However, the X-waiver severely hinders access to buprenorphine by preventing health care providers from prescribing it. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), only about 1 in 10 people with OUD receive medications for the condition because of the X-waiver. Furthermore, the Department of Health and Human Services claims that fully 40% of US counties do not have any health care providers who can prescribe buprenorphine.

If passed, the MAT Act will eliminate the X-waiver and make buprenorphine more available and accessible for Americans with OUD.

The letter was sent to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Chair Patty Murray, and Ranking Member Richard Burr on August 31, Overdose Awareness Day. The letter can be found 

This article originally appeared on Psychiatric Times.

1. NCCHC Supports Access to MOUD. National Commission on Correctional Health Care. September 9, 2022. Accessed September 21, 2022. 

https://www.ncchc.org/ncchc-supports-access-to-moud/

2. The Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act (“MAT Act”, S. 445 / H.R. 1384). August 31, 2022. Accessed September 21, 2022. 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eb15fa07d53aa0e85b448d7/t/6317704dfeb1183bfc5ada54/1662480461791/MAT+Act+(S+445)+-+167+Organizations+Submit+Letter+to+Senate+Leadership+Urging+Passage+with+Sept.+CR+(Aug22).pdf

Articles

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care and 166 other national organizations recently signed a letter to Senate leadership advocating for increased access to buprenorphine.

Advocating for Increased Access to Medication for Treating Opioid Use Disorder

Prescriptions for opioid pain medications decreased and prescriptions for nonopioid prescription painkillers grew after federal regulators published the 2016 guideline on using the drugs.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the “CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain – United States, 2016,” with recommendations for primary care physicians who were prescribing opioids for patients with chronic pain outside active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end of life care. The 

 acknowledged “serious risks, including overdose and opioid use disorder,” with overdose death rates climbing in the preceding 10 years.

Once the guideline was published, opioid prescriptions declined and prescriptions increased for nonopioid medicines, according to 

 of insurance claims data of more than 15.87 million patients across the United States. Prescriptions for nonopioids such as acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants and antiseizure drugs grew by 3% in 2016, the first year of the guideline, then by 8.7% in 2017 and by 9.7% by 2018, the third year after the CDC guideline.

“These findings suggest that clinicians have been prescribing nonopioid pain medications more frequently since the 2016 guideline was released, and that may mean that they’ve considered opioid therapy only if its expected benefits exceeded the expected risks to the patient,” lead author Jason Goldstick, PhD, said in a 

“Though many characteristics – such as pain intensity and effectiveness of pain management – are not available in these data, these results may represent an increase in guideline-concordant pain treatment,” said Goldstick is a research associate professor of emergency medicine at University of Michigan Medical School.

Researchers said the analysis was the first they knew of to focus on changes to nonopioid prescribing after the CDC recommendations on opioids.

Increases in nonopioid pain medication prescribing were consistent across several patient subpopulations, including patients with recent opioid exposure, anxiety or mood disorders. The changes in prescribing may have led to greater use of nonpharmacologic treatments, such as physical therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, according to the researchers.

“The 2016 guideline encouraged caution in prescribing opioids, and it was possible that it could have reduced the use of pain treatments overall,” senior author Amy Bohnert, PhD, MHS, said in the news release. Bohnert is associate professor of psychiatry at U-M Medical School. “Our analysis provides an encouraging sign that patients were more often offered other treatments for pain than before the guideline, rather than only being offered opioids less often.”

The data came from the national Optum Clinformatics Data Mart Database from 2011 to 2018 for patients with at least two years of continuous coverage. Coming from a single national insurer, data focused on a population with relatively high socioeconomic status, but did not identify patient comorbidities or differences in CDC guideline implementation across regions, institutions or medical specialties, the study said.

The study, “Patterns in Nonopiod Pain Medication Prescribing After the Release of the 2016 Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain,” was published in the 

This article originally appeared on Medical Economics.

Study finds growth in three years after CDC guideline for primary care clinicians.

Nonopioid Pain Reliever Prescriptions on the Rise, as Opioid Prescriptions Decline

Patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) experience an impaired quality of life (QOL) and half of patients have co-existing type 2 inflammatory diseases, according to a study documenting the real-world effectiveness and safety of Dupixent (dupilumab).

Researchers in Germany conducted a national, multicenter, prospective, noninterventional study for the purposes of investigating the safety and effectiveness of Dupixent in the real-world setting. The PROLEAD study collected baseline characteristics of patients to understand how patients are usually treated with Dupixent in Germany.

The results, which only covered the baseline characteristics of patients, were 

. Future publication will report on the effectiveness and safety of Dupixent.

Moderate-to-severe AD is a chronic type 2 inflammatory disease and patients experience frequent disease flares with intense itch and a poor quality of life, the researchers explained. In Germany, only one-third of patients are treated by a specialist; as a result, patients with AD are undertreated and novel therapies, such as Dupixent are rarely prescribed.

The study included 817 patients with baseline data available across 126 sites throughout Germany. The mean age of patients was 43.4 years and 48.5% were female. The majority (66.6%) of patients received their AD diagnosis during childhood and 51.8% had co-existing atopic and type 2 inflammatory diseases.

Regarding burden of disease, the researchers found:

A mean number of 6.1 patient-reported flares in the previous 12 months

Mean number of 2.1 days spent in a hospital as an inpatient over the previous 24 months

Half (50.7%) of patients said their disease “very”, “quite a bit” or “moderately” hampered their ability to practice their profession/their studies/their everyday school life

Nearly all (96.6%) of the patients had received topic treatments previously, 61.4% had received systemic therapy, and 51.3% had previously received ultraviolet/phototherapy. Only 38.6% of patients had never received any systemic therapy prior to receiving Dupixent.

For the 12 months prior to baseline, 43.6% of patients had received only a topic therapy. At baseline, moderate potent or potent topical corticosteroid were the most common treatment given at the same time as Dupixent. However, half (50.4%) of patients had not received any AD treatment with Dupixent at baseline.

The researchers noted that “the number of patients receiving topical and/or systemic treatments for AD decreased towards baseline, with approximately half then receiving dupilumab as monotherapy. Moreover, patients receiving dupilumab became less dependent on combination therapy with systemic and topical AD treatment over time.”

The common reasons to start Dupixent were that topical therapy alone was insufficient (95.1%) and the risk-benefit ratio (42.3%).

Most patients (62.9%) presented with severe AD at baseline and 27.7% had moderate AD. The researchers noted that in terms of skin lesions at baseline, the patients in the real world were “less severely affect by AD” compared with the patients in the pivotal phase 3 CHRONOS trial.

The disease-specific Dermatology Life Quality Index scores at baseline indicated a large impact on QOL and a high burden of AD among the patient population in PROLEAD, the authors noted.

“The results of the present and previous studies investigating dupilumab demonstrate the potential to improve management of moderate-to-severe AD,” they wrote.

This article originally appeared on Managed Heatlhcare Executive.

A national study in Germany identified the baseline characteristics of patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) to understand how they are usually treated with Dupixent in the real world.

Impaired Quality of Life, Disease Burden Felt by Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Atopic Dermatitis

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued an alert to users related to a potential cybersecurity risk for Medtronic MiniMed 600 Series Insulin Pump Systems.

Announced on September 20, the FDA’s alert, which pertains to multiple systems including the MiniMed 630 G and MiniMed 670G, points out the agency had not been made aware of any reports related to this cybersecurity vulnerability. The FDA’s alert also noted 

Medtronic has issued an Urgent Medical Device Correction

 on their own website notifying users as well as providing recommended actions.

“There is a potential issue associated with the communication protocol for the pump system that could allow unauthorized access to the pump system. If unauthorized access occurs, the pump’s communication protocol could be compromised, which may cause the pump to deliver too much or too little insulin,” noted the 

FDA’s September 20 Cybersecurity alert.

On their website, Medtronic provides the Urgent Medical Device Correction, a list of model numbers impacted by the issue, and a multitude of frequently asked questions for device users. Within these resources, Medtronic notes the issue was identified through an internal review and, while the event meets the definition of a recall, users are not required to return their devices.

, which was signed by Chirag Tilara, vice president of Quality at Medtronic Diabetes, and Robert Vigersky, MD, chief medical officer at Medtronic Diabetes, the pair recommended all patients turn off the “Remote Bolus” feature on their pump if it is turned on, which is on by default. The letter also urged users to conduct any connection linking of devices in a nonpublic setting. Additional recommended precautions from Medtronic included keeping pump and connected system components within user control at all times, be attentive to pump notifications, alarms, and alerts, and immediately cancel any boluses you or your care partner did not initiate.

“Medtronic has recently identified a potential issue through internal testing whereby, under specific circumstances, the communication between the components of the pump system could be compromised through unauthorized access,” reads the letter. “For unauthorized access to occur, a nearby person other than you or your care partner would need to gain access to your pump at the same time that the pump is being paired with other system components. This cannot be done over the internet.”

In the aforementioned release, the FDA noted they are working with Medtronic to identify, communicate, and prevent adverse events related to this incident. The FDA urged those with questions to reach out to Medtronic at 1-800-646-4633, option 1.

This article originally appeared on Endocrinology Network.

The risk could allow unauthorized users to change insulin levels.

FDA, Medtronic Alert Users to Cybersecurity Risk with MiniMed 600 Systems

COVID-19 has resulted in short-term effects on contraceptive needs and access, along with reproductive outcomes, according to a recent study.

Healthcare systems have been significantly affected by the pandemic, as resources were stressed, and services weakened. The World Health Organization (WHO) released a survey revealing nearly all countries’ healthcare systems suffered from the pandemic, with lower-income countries suffering further.

Infectious disease outbreaks often affect patterns of sexual activity. During the Ebola outbreak, family planning decreased 6% in Sierra Leone, 65% in Liberia, and 51% in Guinea. Ebola survivors were not offered means of contraception following the outbreak, despite the acknowledgment that unwanted pregnancies should be avoided during an outbreak.

Investigators saw a need to examine how COVID-19 has affected access to reproductive health services. They conducted a study with the goal of forming empirical evidence to help healthcare professionals make model-based estimates on the services needed.

In the 3-phase study, investigators conducted an electronic bibliographic database search. The first phase consisted of initial limited searches of PubMed, then an assessment of words used in the title and abstract of the papers collected. In the next phase, a new search was conducted using the identified keywords and index terms. Finally, reference lists from the papers were reviews for relevant sources.

There were 28 peer-reviewed documents gathered, and 43 not peer-reviewed. COVID-19’s effects on contraception were discussed in 55 of these documents, discussing demand, provision, access, or reproductive outcomes.

In some papers, declines in contraceptive services were seen at the beginning of the pandemic, with improvements occurring in the following months. Others, however, recorded continuing declines in available services. By November 2020, about half of available services were back to pre-COVID levels.

Reduced services during the pandemic included disruptions to the provision of contraceptive services, reduced availability or stockouts, and healthcare services being unable to offer provider-administered methods. Access varied based on population, and 1 in 3 women aged 18 to 30 years in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe who needed family planning services had their access to these services affected by COVID-19.

Fear of infection, lack of transport, travel-related restrictions, cost, increased waiting times, and limited home visits by health workers all contributed to limiting access to contraceptive services. In adolescents, isolation and closure of schools compounded these issues.

Investigators noted that all but 1 study indicated some aspect of contraceptive services declining during COVID-19. As the impact varied between studies, investigators concluded that further studies should be conducted on how the pandemic affected contraceptive services.

This article originally appeared on Contemporary OB/GYN.

Polis CB, Biddlecom A, Singh S, Ushie BA, Rosman L, Saad A. Impacts of COVID-19 on contraceptive and abortion services in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review, 

 (2022);30(1).doi:10.1080/26410397.2022.2098557

In a recent study, it was found that access to contraceptive services declined during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contraceptive Access Negatively Impacted by COVID-19

After demonstrating efficacy and safety as a weight loss agent in randomized clinical trials, a retrospective cohort study from a Mayo Clinic-led team is providing insight into the real-world effects of 2.4 mg semaglutide (Wegovy) for weight management.

With data from more than 150 patients treated at a referral center for weight management prescribed semaglutide for 3 months or more between January 1, 2021-March 15, 2022, results of the study suggest the mean weight loss achieved at 3 months was 5.9% of body weight, with this improving to 10.9% at 6 months and further analysis indicating more than 50% of semaglutide users achieving weight loss of 10% or more at 6 months.

“This study may be a stepping stone to demonstrating the effectiveness of semaglutide for patients aiming to lose weight. These results may support the applicability of semaglutide in a less controlled environment, as previously proven in RCTs,” wrote investigators.

With the US FDA’s approval of 2.4 mg semaglutide in June 2021 for chronic weight management in patients with overweight or obesity, the weekly GLP-1 receptor agonist became the first drug to receive such an approval in more than half a decade. Based on the results of the pivotal STEP program, the agent boasted a mean weight loss of 6% of body weight at 3 months and 12% of body weight at 28 weeks. Now, more than a year removed from FDA approval, investigators launched the current study citing a lack of retrospective studies assessing effectiveness of the increased doses of semaglutide outside of a clinical trial setting.

Designed as a retrospective review of electronic medical record data from individuals in the Mayo Clinic Health system using 1.7 mg or 2.4 mg semaglutide from January 1, 2021-March 15, 2022, the study’s primary endpoint of interest was the percentage of weight loss, with secondary endpoints examining the proportion of patients achieving weight loss of 5% or more, 10% or more, 15% or more, and 20% or more after 3 and 6 months as well as the percentage of weight loss for patients with or without type 2 diabetes after 3 and 6 months. For inclusion in the investigators’ analyses, individuals were required to have a BMI of 27 kg/m2 or greater and be prescribed weekly semaglutide for 3 months or more. Major exclusion criteria included hoister of bariatric procedures, receipt of other antiobesity medications, and have an active malignant neoplasm.

A total of 408 patients were identified for potential inclusion. After application of exclusion criteria and those who were denied based on insurance or a national shortage of semaglutide, 175 individuals were identified for inclusion in the investigators’ final analyses. This cohort had a mean age of 49.3 (SD, 12.5) years, 75.4% were female, and 88.0% were White. The cohort had a mean BMI of 41.3 (SD, 9.1) kg/m2, 16.0% had type 2 diabetes, and 58.3% had 6-month follow-up data available.

Upon analysis, results indicated the mean weight loss at 3 months was 6.7 (SD, 4.4) kg, which was equivalent to a mean weight loss of 5.9% (SD, 3.7%) (

 <.001). At 6 months, the mean weight loss was 12.3 (SD, 6.6) kg, which was equivalent to a mean weight loss of 10.9% (SD, 5.8%) (

 <.001). Among the 102 patients with at least 6 months of follow-up, 87.3% achieved a weight loss of 5% or more, 54.9% achieved a weight loss of 10% or more, 23.5% achieved a weight loss of 15% or more, and 7.8% achieved a weight loss of 20% or more. Further analysis suggested people with type 2 diabetes had. A lower mean percentage of weight loss at 3 months (3.9% [SD, 3.1%] vs 6.3% [SD, 3.7%]) and at 6 months (7.2% [SD, 6.3%] vs 11.8% [SD, 5.3%]) compared to their counterparts without type 2 diabetes (

“The findings of this cohort study suggest that semaglutide is clinically effective for weight loss at 3 and 6 months for people with overweight or obesity,” investigators added. “Although our study lacked the stringent and closely controlled nature of RCTs, we report similar weight loss results within the same time period as in RCTs. Studies with greater sample sizes and longer periods of follow-up are further needed to support the effectiveness of semaglutide.”

Real-World Data Backs 2.4 mg Wegovy for Weight Management

With COVID-19 pandemic conditions improving, the national emergency declared by the president could end through congressional action.

Sen. Roger “Doc” Marshall, MD, R-Kansas, has introduced a 

 that would end the national emergency first declared by President Donald J. Trump effective March 13, 2020. President Joe Biden extended the national emergency in February 2021 and in February this year.

“Since President Biden used his appearance on ‘60 Minutes’ to declare COVID is over, he must immediately terminate the COVID-19 national emergency declaration and wind down other emergency authorities that his administration continues to force us to live under,” Marshall said in a 

 accompanying introduction of the resolution.

Marshall referred to the president’s Sept. 18 interview on the CBS News 

 among public health experts and news commentators, and on Sept. 21 Biden noted 

“But it basically is not where it was,” the president said about the pandemic, during a visit to New York.

“The American people are fatigued and yearning to operate outside of the confines of supersized government; they long for their God-given freedoms, and for leaders to take their side,” said Marshall, who made his 

 before serving in public office. “In March the U.S. Senate voted for my Resolution to repeal this emergency declaration and delivered a symbolic victory that limited government and our constitutional rights still reign supreme.

“It’s high time to for Joe Biden and his administration stop using COVID to implement their partisan political agenda and focus on the surge in crime and the fentanyl epidemic that is wreaking havoc across this nation and killing Americans at record rates,” Marshall said.

The resolution refers to the National Emergencies Act (NEA), a federal law that allows Congress to review and possibly terminate the president’s emergency declarations.

Marshall cited the law’s provision that “each House of Congress shall meet to consider a vote on a joint resolution to determine whether the emergency shall be terminated.”

“However, Congressional interpretation of this law has determined that the absence of a resolution introduced by any member signals unanimous consent for continuation,” said a statement published by Marshall’s office. “In failing to meet, debate, and vote on an emergency, Congress is effectively ceding more unchecked emergency powers to the executive similar to its failure to enforce War Powers provisions.”

It is not the first time Marshall has acted with legislation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. In March, the resolution had cosponsorship from Republican Senators Mike Braun of Indiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rick Scott of Florida, Steve Daines of Montana, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and James Risch of Idaho, and the Senate passed it 48-47, prompting a 

The president argued the national emergency allows the administration to respond to COVID-19 quickly and more effectively than without it, which benefits health care workers and those who contract the illness. Ending it prematurely “would be a reckless and costly mistake,” the administration’s veto warning said.

“Our health care workforce has been incredibly resilient, but after two years of fighting the pandemic we must continue to do everything we can to limit the burdens on our health care system,” said the letter from the Office of Management and Budget in the president’s administration. “Preventing further strain on our health care workers and their ability to deliver care to COVID patients will also enable treatment of people suffering from other illnesses who are also put at risk when hospital systems are overwhelmed.”

The House of Representatives did not take up the March resolution.

Once the latest resolution is introduced and approved by the Senate parliamentarian, the Senate Finance Committee will consider it and make a recommendation to the full Chamber. Marshall noted the process is outlined in the NEA.

Congress could overrule presidential declaration, but White House threatened veto of similar measure in March.

Senator Roger Marshall Seeks to End COVID-19 Pandemic National Emergency

Ms. Hester is Content Specialist with Contemporary OB/GYN and Contemporary Pediatrics.

A national study in Germany identified the baseline characteristics of patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis to understand how they are usually treated with Dupixent in the real world.

Housing, Food Insecurity Can Be Caused By Medical Debt

Hospitalization, disability, having private high-deductible, Medicare Advantage, or no coverage were risk factors associated with medical debt.

Open-Source Automated Insulin Delivery Systems May Lead to Glycemic Control Improvement in Type 1 Diabetes

Research indicates that using an open-source automated insulin delivery systems can lead to greater glycemic control.

Your weekly roundup of the latest news from Drug Topics®.

News Roundup: September 19 to September 23

The World Health Organization strongly recommends against using two monoclonal antibody COVID-19 treatments in updated guidelines.

In the new guidelines, which were published in the 

, WHO indicated that GSK/Vir’s Xevudy (sotrovimab) and Regeneron’s Regen-Cov (casirivimab-imdevimab) have “meaningfully reduced neutralization activity of the currently circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 and their subvariants.”

“There was consensus among the panel that the absence of in vitro neutralization activity strongly suggests absence of clinical effectiveness of these monoclonal antibodies,” WHO said. “However, there was also consensus regarding the need for clinical trial evidence in order to confirm clinical efficacy of new monoclonal antibodies that reliably neutralize the circulating strains in vitro. Whether emerging new variants and subvariants might be susceptible to sotrovimab, casirivimab-imdevimab, or other anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies cannot be predicted,” WHO added.

WHO also switched to a conditional recommendation of Gilead Sciences’ Veklury (remdesevir) in patients with severe covid-19 and a conditional recommendation against its use in patients with critical COVID-19.

“New trial data were added to a previous subgroup analysis and provided sufficiently trustworthy evidence to demonstrate benefits in patients with severe COVID-19, but not critical COVID-19,” WHO said.

The WHO’s Guideline Development Group considered benefits of remdesivir to be modest and of moderate certainty for key outcomes such as mortality and mechanical ventilation, resulting in a conditional recommendation.

WHO also said that IL-6 receptor blockers Genentech’s Actemra (tocilizumab) or Sanofi/Regeneron’s Kevzara (sarilumab) and the JAK inhibitor Olumiant (baricitinib) from Lilly and Incyte may now be combined, in addition to corticosteroids, in patients with severe or critical COVID-19.

For Olumiant, the Guideline Development Group considered clinical trial evidence (RECOVERY) demonstrating reduced risk of death in patients already receiving corticosteroids and IL-6 receptor blockers.

“The GDG acknowledged that the clinical trials were not representative of the world population and that the risk-benefit balance may be less advantageous, particularly in patients who are immunosuppressed at higher risk of opportunistic infections (such as serious fungal, viral, or bacteria), those already deteriorating where less aggressive or stepwise addition of immunosuppressive medications may be preferred, and in areas where certain pathogens such as HIV or tuberculosis, are of concern,” WHO said.

This article originally appeared on Formulary Watch.

World Health Organization said there is a lack of evidence of clinical effectiveness of the monoclonal antibodies Xevudy and Regen-Cov against the COVID-19 variants that are currently circulating.

WHO Recommends Against Using 2 COVID-19 Monoclonal Treatments

 globally is expected to double by 2040, according to the results of a new modeling study.

Funded by JDRF International, results of the study project the number of people with type 1 diabetes worldwide to balloon from 8.4 million, which was the 2021 estimate, up to 13.5-17.4 million by 2040, with the largest relative increases occurring in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

“Given that prevalence of people with T1D is projected to increase in all countries to up to 17.5 million cases in 2040, our results provide a warning for substantial negative implications for societies and healthcare systems,”said study investigator Graham Ogle, MBBS, a pediatric endocrinologist with the University of Sydney, in a statement. “There is an opportunity to save millions of lives in the coming decades by raising the standard of care for T1D and increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of T1D to enable a 100% rate of diagnosis in all countries. Our model, which will be made available open-source, will make data on the burden of T1D widely accessible and serve as a platform for stakeholders to make improvements in T1D care and outcomes.”

Although type 1 diabetes represents a significant threat to life expectancy, notable gaps in data still exist related to prevalence, incidence, and associated mortality for people with type 1 diabetes. With this in mind, Ogle and a team of colleagues fitted a Markov model with data on type 1 diabetes incidence and associate morality for 201 countries for the year of 2021 to estimate project prevalence in 2040.

Overall, investigators obtained data related to the 1 diabetes incidence form 97 countries and mortality data from 37 countries. For the purpose of analysis, diagnosis rates were estimated using data from an expert survey. Additionally, mortality was modeled using random-first regression of published type 1 diabetes mortality data and life expectancy was calculated using life tables. Investigators pointed out estimates were validated against observed prevalence data for 15 countries.

Investigators found the global prevalence of type 1diabetes in 2021 was approximately 8.4 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 8.1-8.8) million. Of the 8.4 million with diabetes, 18% were less than 20 years of age, 64% were 20-59 years of age, and 19% were aged 60 years or older. During 2021, investigators estimated there were 500,000 new diagnoses of type 1 diabetes, with a median age at onset of 39 years. Results suggest there were about 500,000 undiagnosed cases in 2021 and, during the same time, investigators estimated about 35,000 undiagnosed patients would die within 12 months of symptom onset.

Investigators highlighted 1.8 million individuals with type 1 diabetes were in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Comparison of life expectancy revealed the life expectancy of a 10-year-old diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2021 ranged from a mean of 13 years in low-income countries to 65 years in high-income countries. By 2040, the results of the modeling study pointed to an increase in prevalence to 13.5-17.4 million, which represents an increase of 60-107% over the 2021 figures, with the greatest relative increases observed among low- and lower-middle-income countries.

“Our findings indicate that the overall footprint of T1D is much larger than previous estimates have indicated, when missing prevalence due to excess mortality is accounted for,” said study investigator Kim Donaghue, MBBS, PhD, head of Diabetes Complications Assessment Services Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney, in the aforementioned statement. “This is particularly true in low- and middle-income countries – for example in sub-Saharan Africa which accounts for 357,000 cases of T1D or 4% of global prevalence but 23% of the lives lost each year—highlighting the urgent need to increase awareness of the signs and symptoms of T1D in lower-middle-income countries."

1. Gregory GA, Robinson TIG, Linklater SE. Global incidence, prevalence, and mortality of type 1 diabetes in 2021 with projection to 2040: a modelling study. 

. 2022 Sep 7;S2213-8587(22)00218-2. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(22)00218-2.

Modeling indicates a significant increase in patients with type 1 diabetes over the next several years.

Real-World Data Backs 2.4 mg Wegovy for Weight Management

Senator Roger Marshall Seeks to End COVID-19 Pandemic National Emergency

News Roundup: September 19 to September 23

WHO Recommends Against Using 2 COVID-19 Monoclonal Treatments

Number of People with Type 1 Diabetes Forecasted to Double by 2040