I realize there has been some news to be shared this week, but can I just be brutally honest with you all? I’m just weary of it all. What do I mean?
Whether it is the Outsourcing Facilities Association’s battle with the FDA (and Lilly… and Novo), or Mochi’s partner pharmacy, as patients, we are all watching hope fade with the slow and painful death of compounded tirzepatide.
In some ways, this is par for the course for the average American healthcare consumer, because let’s face it, that is what we are in this broken system. If we are able to shed the altruistic idea that we are soul-filled beings in pursuit of our healthiest and happiest selves, we can see ourselves the way the system truly views us: healthcare consumers.
As dutiful and predictable consumers, we march toward the options presented to us and draw our battle lines. Pro or anti pharma. Pro or anti compound.
And that is exactly how they want it. Keep us fighting each other while they pull the strings, shifting the rules just enough to make sure we stay in line. If we are too busy arguing over who is right: brand name or compound, pharma-backed or pharmacy-made, we are not paying attention to the bigger picture.
The truth is, it was never a fair fight. Compounded tirzepatide was a workaround for a shortage that was always more of a quiet understanding between the ones in charge. But in the end, people got a taste of something different. Something that was accessible to the common person. Something that gave them hope. Something that let them take control of their own health for the first time in their lives. And when the people get hope, the system tightens its grip.
The walls are closing in. The lawsuits, the regulatory crackdowns, the sudden end of the shortage that made compounding possible in the first place. It all leads to the same outcome. Fewer options. Higher costs. More people forced to choose between their health and their home. The ones who have much will continue to have more, while the ones most in need are left reaching for scraps, hoping someone will show them mercy.
This is how the world has always worked. The powerful keep their hold, the gatekeepers protect what is theirs, and the ones who suffer are told to accept their place. But that is not how it was meant to be. Healing was never meant to be rationed. It was never meant to be reserved for those with connections, for those who can pay the price.
The sick were never meant to be turned away. And yet, here we are, watching it happen all over again. The only question left is whether we will just watch… or whether we will stand.
More to come, but for now please go “vote” for this policy change. Sign up for emails at the bottom and stay tuned.