SAN ANTONIO — Drug shortages have almost become commonplace in the pharmaceutical world, with pharmacies struggling to fill prescriptions for one reason or another. In today's Healthy SA we find out just how big of a problem this is, and how one app is trying to fix it.
Drug shortages are at an all-time high right now. Especially when it comes to GLP-1s or weight loss medications, as it becomes more evident that those meds also help improve many other conditions.
Renee Dua, the founder of Together By Renee, an AI-driven healthcare told KENS 5, "More and more people are able to use them for obesity and management of diabetes. We also have data that people who use GLP ones are having improvement in heart conditions and kidney conditions. So of course everyone is prescribing them."
That's where the free smartphone app "Together By Renee," comes in to help you find the medication you desperately need. You snap a picture of your pill bottle, and take your vitals using the app. After that, Dua says the app works "in the back end to call pharmacies in your neighborhood and find where there is a stock of medications and help get your prescription transferred over so that you can get the medication at a different pharmacy and not miss your dose, which is so critical."
A nationwide investigation looked at reasons for national drug shortages in 2023. There were several causes, from business decisions to manufacturing issues, but 60% of them were unknown or didn't provide the info.
Dua added, "There is such a shortage because so many people using them, and the pharmaceutical companies cannot keep up with supply."