Real-world utilization of top-down and step-up therapy and initial costs in Crohn disease.

Medication treatment strategies for Crohn disease (CD) include step-up (SU) therapy, beginning with oral anti-inflammatory agents, and top-down (TD) therapy, beginning with biologics or immunomodulators. The real-world utilization and short-term medical costs associated with these treatment strategies are not well described. To examine the prevalence of TD therapy use over time and compare the first-year direct medical expenditures among patients initiating CD medication treatment with SU and TD therapy in a real-world setting.

PBMs: Criticized But Still Needed.

PBMs can play an important role in the pharmaceutical supply chain and are positioned to protect consumers and save them out-of-pocket costs. The emergence of new PBMs, whether inside or outside an insurer, should drive new solutions and the development of new models.

Persistence at 24 months with denosumab among postmenopausal women with osteoporosis: results of a prospective cohort study.

Unlabelled: Persistence with prescribed medications for chronic diseases is important; however, persistence with osteoporosis treatments is historically poor. In this prospective cohort study of postmenopausal women treated for osteoporosis in real-world clinical practice settings in the USA and Canada, 24-month persistence with denosumab was 58%.

Purpose: Patients who persist with their prescribed osteoporosis treatment have increased bone mineral density (BMD) and reduced risk of fracture.

Persistence at 12 months with denosumab in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis: interim results from a prospective observational study.

Unlabelled: To determine persistence with subcutaneous denosumab every 6 months in women being treated for osteoporosis, we conducted a single-arm prospective, observational study in the United States and Canada. Among 935 patients enrolled, 12-month persistence was 82%, with 66 patients (7%) reporting serious adverse events and 19 patients (2%) reporting fractures.

Introduction: Increased persistence with osteoporosis therapy is associated with reduced fracture risk.

Chemical analysis of osmium tetroxide staining in adipose tissue using imaging ToF-SIMS.

Osmium tetroxide (OsO4) is a commonly used stain for unsaturated lipids in electron and optical microscopy of cells and tissues. In this work, the localization of osmium oxide and specific lipids was independently monitored in mouse adipose tissue by using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry with Bi cluster primary ions. Substance-specific ion images recorded after OsO4 staining showed that unsaturated C18 fatty acids were colocalized with osmium oxide, corroborating the view that osmium tetroxide binds to unsaturated lipids.