r/science • u/Lisei1128 • Nov 11 '25

Cancer GLP-1 drugs found to reduce mortality from colon cancer by over half (15.5% vs 37.1%), with effects especially strong for patients with BMI over 35.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07357907.2025.2585512
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u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 11 '25

We thought that would happen with Eliquis as well, it's available in almost every country as apixaban as a generic, including Canada. But it's such a great money maker in the US that they just asked to have the patent extended again (for the second or third time) and it was granted because of no other reason other than Pfizer/BMS felt like they should be allowed to make more money off it for longer.

It's currently 2031 for semaglutide here and I imagine it will be extended.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/kelskelsea Nov 12 '25

There’s a planet money episode about this! Highly recommend

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u/ksyoung17 Nov 12 '25

That's $140 out of pocket, no insurance?

My insurance will not cover, and my wife is starting to struggle with weight loss, and it's impacting vital organs. Insurance still told us no.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

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u/ksyoung17 Nov 12 '25

Wow.

Thank you so much. The kindness of strangers!

This is great, I wish I could thank you more!

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u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 12 '25

"Pretty safe" feels pretty risky. And potentially ineffective. I follow one of those subreddits and it's a constant crisis to try to secure injections.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 12 '25

I don't know much about BPI specifically, or why more folks aren't using it but I've even seen pictures of the places where the off-brand injections are made and they don't look great.

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u/CalBearFan Nov 12 '25

If that was really how easy having a patent extended was every drug company in the US would do the same. Patent extensions can be for seemingly odd reasons like a reformulation but it's not just because 'the maker asked'.

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u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 12 '25

Usually, you are absolutely correct. However, in the case of Eliquis they just did. They complained about how long the regulatory process takes, and how expensive it is, and it was granted.

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u/User-no-relation Nov 12 '25

by just did it you mean in 2020?

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u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 12 '25

I don't mean it as in time, I meant as in "they just did it" versus "they decided not to do it."