Peptide News Digest

#Specialty-Pharmacy

2 stories

Research · View digest

NYU Langone Specialty Pharmacy Analysis Finds 3.9% of 2,943 GLP-1 Starters Stopped Within a Year

Two retrospective analyses by Shields Health Solutions and partner health systems, presented at the NASP inSPire2026 specialty pharmacy meeting (September 22-25) and reported by AJMC on September 25, 2026, examined GLP-1 therapy managed by health-system specialty pharmacies. At NYU Langone Health, 115 of 2,943 adults (83.4% commercially insured) who started injectable liraglutide, semaglutide, dulaglutide, or tirzepatide between August 2022 and May 2025 stopped within a year (3.9%), with stopping defined as at least 70 days without medication on hand; rates were 1.8% for tirzepatide, 6.1% for semaglutide, 5.9% for dulaglutide, and 25% for liraglutide. A second analysis of 1,707 patients found a median of five days from prescription to first dispense, prior authorization for 95%, and a median out-of-pocket cost of $24.98; the authors noted the single-organization design and lack of a comparison group.

Industry · View digest

Takeda Mimrylo Commercial Launch Underway; Rusfertide Second-Day Availability Establishes First-Mover Positioning in Hepcidin Mimetic Peptide Category

Takeda (NYSE: TAK) confirmed Sunday August 30, 2026 that commercial launch of Mimrylo (rusfertide, the first-in-class subcutaneous hepcidin mimetic peptide approved Friday August 28 for erythrocytosis in adults with polycythemia vera) is underway across the U.S., with the product available at specialty pharmacies within 48 hours of FDA approval. The commercial launch approach reflects Takeda's rare-blood-cancer specialty commercial infrastructure built up around Iclusig (ponatinib) for chronic myeloid leukemia and the recent Fruzaqla (fruquintinib) launch in colorectal cancer. Jefferies analyst projections of $2 billion peak sales assume rapid coverage decisions from major U.S. payers by end of 2026 plus European approval on the same clinical dataset in H1 2027. The Mimrylo launch establishes the hepcidin mimetic peptide category and sets a commercial template that Disc Medicine's DISC-0974 (an anti-hemojuvelin antibody targeting hepcidin from a different angle) and Silence Therapeutics' SLN124 (siRNA targeting TMPRSS6, an upstream hepcidin regulator) will need to differentiate against.