{"id":1422,"date":"2024-06-21T15:08:26","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T22:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/?p=1422"},"modified":"2024-08-20T16:24:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T23:24:14","slug":"profit-over-patients-insulin-pen-shortage-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/profit-over-patients-insulin-pen-shortage-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Profit Over Patients: Insulin Pen Shortage in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa is running out of insulin pens due to Novo Nordisk&#8217;s decision not to renew its contract, focusing instead on more profitable weight- loss drugs. The shift to vials represents a step backward in diabetes care. Vials and syringes are harder to use and less precise, raising concerns about medication adherence and long-term complications.<\/p>\n<p>The situation underscores a broader issue: the prioritization of profit over equitable healthcare access, leaving vulnerable populations in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) struggling with outdated and less effective treatments. 80% of people with diabetes live in LMICs. However, drugs like the Ozempic pen, commonly used for diabetes treatment in high- income countries, are not included in the World Health Organization&#8217;s essential medicines list or the diabetes treatment guidelines of LMICs.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full article by Stephanie Nolen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/19\/health\/insulin-pens-south-africa-ozempic-wegovy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare&amp;login=email&amp;auth=login-email\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Image Source: NY Times<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa is running out of insulin pens due to Novo Nordisk&#8217;s decision not to renew its contract, focusing instead on more profitable weight- loss drugs. The shift to vials represents a step backward in diabetes care. Vials and syringes are harder to use and less precise, raising concerns about medication adherence and long-term complications. The situation underscores a broader issue: the prioritization of profit over equitable healthcare access, leaving vulnerable populations in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) struggling&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,88,18],"tags":[],"media_type_reference":[],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-access-to-healthcare","category-big-pharmaceuticals","category-medical-apartheid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1425,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions\/1425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"media_type_reference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type_reference?post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}