5SR - September 15, 2023

Today’s curator is the founder of #5SmartReads, Hitha Palepu. She’s a consummate multihyphenate - CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, author of WE’RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris and How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip, and professional speaker. Hitha is an unabashed fan of Taco Bell, Philadelphia sports teams & F1, romance novels, and is a mediocre crafter. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

Generic Drugs Should Be Cheap, but Insurers Are Charging Thousands of Dollars for Them (Wall Street Journal)
link gifted via my WSJ subscription

Imatinib mesylate is a leukemia medication, with a number of generic options on the market. At Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, a month’s supply at the lowest dose will cost you $13.40.

At your local CVS, your insurance plan may be charged $6,600. Simply because they can.

This article does a fantastic job of clearly explaining the nebulous, complicated relationships between pharmacies, insurers, and pharmacy benefit managers (and the consolidation among these three that purposefully blur the lines to maximize profit).

I have tremendous respect for Mark Cuban’s pharmacy not only for offering lifesaving medications at affordable prices, but for also making transparency a cornerstone of their business model (they sell all of their medications at cost + 15% markup, and shipping and handling fees). They’ve flattened the the distribution to offer the best price (manufacturer > distributor > Mark Cuban Cost Plug Drugs > patient), and to highlight the inefficient-for-profit-sake current distribution system we have in American disease management.

I also love how they’ve begun partnering with independently owned pharmacies to offer local pickup and pharmacy services for patients. Pharmacists are an underrepresented and under-respected group of healthcare professionals, and these partnerships offer them fair compensation and allow them to focus on greater patient care instead of trying to explain why a drug costs so much.

American Mothers on Pause (Mother Untitled)

For far too long, mothers who have paused their careers to prioritize family life (regardless of choice or circumstance) have been absent in a lot of the economic and workforce data that’s been compiled and used to develop policy.

This work is a cornerstone of life - it impacts the economy, health (at both macro and micro level), and the social fabric that weaves this country together. To have omitted these experiences and this data is no longer an option - and I’m so proud of Mother Untitled for leading this study and report.

The data is both unsurprisingly and heartbreaking:

• more than 50% of working moms surveyed said they are extremely or very likely to reduce their hours or downshift to a less taxing job

• 1 in 3 survey participants said they are likely to leave their jobs to focus on stay-at-home parenthood

• 62% reported that their reason for pausing was the cost of childcare

• The study participants overwhelmingly reported that the trade-off in household income was worth it, but depending on a partner for income was also their greatest worry

I hope you take the time to read the full report, which is linked at the top of this piece. Not only does it highlight the care crisis we are facing in this country, but it validates the financial, mental, and emotional ROI of investing in the care economy.

I’m a fake brand, in a fake world: The secrets behind designing a great fictional brand for TV and film (It’s Nice That)

I don’t think we take the time to consider the immense power of a brand.

We’re more likely to call facial tissues Kleenex, or adhesive bandages Band-Aids. The power of aspirin brand’s is so strong that few call it by its true generic name - acetylsalicylic acid.

The power of brand is so strong that fictional brands (like Dunder Mifflin, Duff beer, or anything from a Wes Anderson film) gain the same level of recognition and loyalty as brands we actually use every day - and this read does a beautiful job of diving deep in how these fictional brands are designed and created to evoke connection, both within the story being told and with the viewers.

The WTA and ATP discuss a possible merger (The Gist)

If you’re a sports or geopolitics nerd (or both), you likely have had your eye on this story for a while.

If you’re new here, welcome! The Gist has you covered. The TL;DR is that the two tennis tours (the women’s WTA and men’s ATP) are meeting soon to discuss merging into a singular tour, which both makes logical sense but adds complexity to the sport’s operations.

The benefits are pretty significant - it can fend off an investment by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign trust (which has been sportswashing with its investment in LIV Golf, hosting a F1 Grand Prix, and in their acquisition of Newcastle United). It would also increase pay parity for women’s prize money in non-Slam tournaments substantially (which may also be a factor in ATP members not supporting said merger). And while many tournaments have both men’s and women’s draws, the ATP and WTA have separate deals (broadcast, commercial partners, data rights) that would need to be unwound as a part of the merger.

Progress is never the easier option. But this could usher in a new era for sports, and tennis is the most logical one to test a merger between the men and the women (and builds on the gender overlap that already exists, with mixed doubles).

I would love to see it.

If you want to add great sports reporting to your news diet, I highly recommend subscribing to The Gist.

Using the Oceans to Help Capture Carbon (IEEE)

Positive climate change stories seem to be a rarity these days - but here’s one that can help us have faith in a better future.

Carbon capture and sequestration are one of my nerdy obsessions, especially when it builds on nature’s own effective solutions. Reforestation and preservation is one effective measure for carbon capture that we’re seeing more investment and attention in. Now I give you the ocean - on its own, it absorbs ¼ of global carbon dioxide emissions. Extracting this gas can helps the ocean absorb even more, as a number of companies are piloting right now.

While this piece gets into the chemical and physical weeds, it’s really well-written and explained clearly. It also highlights the risk of direct ocean capture technologies, which are still in the pilot phase and the long term impacts are unknown.

In true 5SR fashion, it’s a both/and issue that’s worth learning more about. Take the time to read this in full.