Were the headlines about Jaguar Health and Founder and CEO Lisa Conte fair or were journalists really seeking to find another Martin Shkreli ‘Pharmabro’ Greedy Pharma Story? You decide.
Over the past few days, sensational headlines from Axios, Pink News, and even featured on the homepage of AIDSmap, all led with a big story about yet another pharmaceutical company drastically increasing the price of a drug (again for patients living with HIV).
But were these stories correct? Were they fair and balanced? If so, what the hell was this pharmaceutical company thinking by jacking up the price of pills during a pandemic? If not, what the hell were these journalists attempting to do to this company’s reputation?
As many of you know, I own a very small branding and social media marketing shop in Nashville. Professionally, I consult with health-related companies about their social media marketing and digital efforts. Full disclosure, a subsidiary of Jaguar Health has worked with me for the past three years. I always tell you when I talk about them, etc. But you also know that my ethics and ability to ask questions not being affected by any of that. This is a circumstance that I asked the CEO for an interview… and I am not being paid for this interview or article, nor would I accept any such payment or have any expectation of not telling this story truthfully.
At the end of the day, as was with the Martin Shkreli scoop I got early on, I question these click-bait headlines from major publishers because they are very quick to pit pharma against those of us living with HIV. Sometimes it’s fair. Sometimes it really is for clicks for their websites. If you believe otherwise, I would suggest not even continuing to read this #HIVscoop!
I care about patient access. With patient access comes the price of medication, the availability of the medication, and the safety of that medication.
Here’s my exclusive 1 on 1 video interview with Founder and CEO of Jaguar Health, the company behind the drug Mytesi. Important Safety Information Mytesi is not approved to treat infectious diarrhea (diarrhea caused by bacteria, a virus, or a parasite). Before starting you on Mytesi, your healthcare provider will first be sure that you do not have infectious diarrhea. Otherwise, there is a risk you would not receive the right medicine and your infection could get worse. In clinical studies, the most common side effects that occurred more often than with placebo were upper respiratory tract (sinus, nose, and throat) infection (5.7%), bronchitis (3.9%), cough (3.5%), flatulence (3.1%), and increased bilirubin (3.1%).
Decide for yourself after watching this video interview with CEO and Founder Lisa Conte if the headlines from major publications were fair or not.
I call bullshit on them. But that’s my personal opinion.
I think Jaguar Health cares about patients. And to me, that’s obvious.