For decades, Colorado has led the way in legalizing non-FDA approved drugs for use as experimental medicines, including marijuana and other psychedelics. So, I couldn’t believe it when I heard about Senate Bill 26-066, “Regulation of Compounded Weight Loss Medication,” which slaps onerous restrictions on Coloradans’ ability to obtain life-changing, and relatively inexpensive versions of GLP-1 weight loss drugs from compounding pharmacies.
A favor to pharma
There are so many reasons to oppose this bill, I honestly don’t know how anyone could support the “bi-partisan” effort of Democrat Iman Jodeh and Republican John Carson, other than as a political favor to big pharma. After listening to all the testimony on the bill (as well as testifying against it myself), and then watching how it passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee 5-4, I’m more convinced of that than ever.
The tiebreaker to send the bill to the Senate floor came from chairman of the committee, Kyle Mullica, whose yes vote came despite the fact that one after another, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lawyers and consumers gave solid testimony as to why this is a terrible bill, while very few testified in favor.
Testimony was so compelling against her bill, in fact, that Jodeh disingenuously reassured the committee that the patented formula was available to consumers for just $149 per month. Not true. The fact is that is Eli Lilly starts its lowest dose of Zepbound at $300 per month, and then charges three times the cost Jodeh cited, as well as places additional conditions on being able to get the three most effective doses at its discounted rate of $450 per month.
Novo Nordisk offers its first two dosing levels of Wegovy at $199 per month for the first two months and then raises the price to $349 per month after that. The $349 is also the price for all of its most effective doses. The $149 is a new pill that Novo created, and it’s not being compounded – if she’s citing that cost, her comparison is apples to oranges.
It’s personal
For full disclosure, I have a personal reason for fighting this.
In 2018, after being thin most of my life, I reached my highest weight of 336 pounds! It took me just a few years to reach that, but nearly a decade to lose it. Why? Because obesity is a disease! And the idea that if you just start eating right and get regular exercise all will go away is ludicrous. That is like me telling a diabetic to stop eating sugar and their diabetes will go away.
Today, I am just one pound from losing 50 percent of my body weight, but I didn’t do that on my own!
I trie
d to go low carb, but I could not sustain it. I tried weight watchers. I tried the Metabolic Research Center of Colorado. I even tried Phentermine, which some of you may recall was half of the phen/phen craze of the 70s. I tried it all. They would work for a bit and then stall and then I would get frustrated and gain it back.
In Sept. 2024, my doctor prescribed Zepbound, the brand name GLP-1 manufactured by Eli Lilly. It was my salvation, but six months in, my insurance stopped covering it. To pay for it on my own was going to be $1,400 a month!
That’s when I found a compounding pharmacy. Rather than $1,400 a month, the facility I found charges me $175. That ability to go elsewhere for a GLP-1 saved my life. But it wasn’t a miracle drug by no means. I’ve put in a lot of hard work, learned how to eat again, exercise regularly and took back control of my body.
Dropping 168 pounds came with a lot more than just vanity. I’ve been removed from use of oxygen at night. I have cut my blood pressure medication in half, I rarely if ever use my rescue inhaler anymore (which I had been going through one a month, sometimes more), and I’m retesting to see if I can be removed from my CPAP machine!
My life would look much different if this bill were law over the last year and a half. And I shouldn’t have to fight my legislators to be healthy!
A compounding pharmacy by definition is a “specialized facility that creates customized medications from scratch by mixing raw ingredients to meet specific patient needs.”
Sponsors of the bill said repeatedly during testimony that they are targeting ONLY GLP-1s with this bill, reasoning that unlike mass-produced medications, they are not subject to approval by the FDA. However, EVERY drug produced by a compounding pharmacy is not subject to approval by the FDA.” That is the very definition of a compounding pharmacy.
Picking winners and losers
While yes, the compounded drugs themselves are not FDA approved, the pharmacies themselves are heavily regulated, and use only FDA approved ingredients. I challenge anyone supporting this bill to show me a vitamin or mineral they take that is FDA approved.
A GLP 1 that is produced in a compounding pharmacy allows patients to customize dosing levels to help minimize the many side effects that the FDA approved versions admittedly provoke with their one-size-fits-all dosing. They also allow additions of key vitamins and minerals that those going through significant weight loss can lack.
Although this bill should have never made it out of the Senate committee, there is hope as it still does not have any sponsors in the House. But if this makes it through the full Senate, I will keep fighting when it does get to the House to help others like me keep the hope that they can regain their lives and health without buckling to big pharma.
Sherrie Peif is a 4th generation Colorado native and an investigative reporter for Complete Colorado who turned to medical help and compounded GLP-1 drugs to end her battle with obesity.
