About Covid-19
Why Do COVID-19 Death Rates Differ Wildly from Place to Place?: “…a country’s level of pre-COVID income inequality was by far the best predictor of the COVID death rate. The same finding emerged when the researchers studied variations in COVID death rates across U.S. states: higher death rates tend to occur is U.S. states with higher pre-COVID income inequality…”
The “death rate among low-income Americans would have been a staggering 30 percent lower if this group had the same COVID case-fatality rate as high-income people. The researchers surmise that lower-income people presumably came into the pandemic with more preexisting health conditions that made them much more predisposed to succumb to the virus than those with more money.”
Trump’s vaccine tsar launches European biotech roll-up: “Moncef Slaoui, the former GlaxoSmithKline research boss who became the Trump administration’s vaccine tsar, is returning to the private sector at a new venture that is rolling up smaller biotech companies in an attempt to take on Big Pharma…
Slaoui is also a partner at Medixci, which will roll its stakes in the merged companies into a shareholding in Centessa. The new umbrella company includes drug development programmes ranging from cancer to blood pressure. It has four products in clinical trials, including a drug for kidney disease in a phase 3 study and a cancer drug in phase 2/3.”
White House says it will send 13.5 million vaccine doses a week to U.S. states: “The White House said on Tuesday it is increasing the supply of coronavirus vaccines sent each week to states to 13.5 million doses, and is also doubling the amount shipped to pharmacies to 2 million doses this week.”
Thousands of the world’s most trusted brands—including Pepsi, Starbucks, Comcast, Verizon, Marriott, and even the CDC—have funded COVID-19 misinformation, including Chinese and Russian propaganda websites: The headline speaks for itself. How can companies screen their outlets to avoid these problems?
Saliva Test May Predict Severity of COVID-19: “‘We discovered that the saliva viral load is a much better correlate of disease outcome than the nasopharyngeal viral load,’ says Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, lead author of the study, and an immunologist at Yale School of Medicine…
’The saliva viral load correlates not only with the disease severity, but also with the immune response to COVID-19, and older age, [male] sex, and co-morbidities that have been found to put people at higher risk—essentially every parameter that we've examined,’ Iwasaki says.”
North Korea accused of hacking Pfizer for Covid-19 vaccine data: “North Korea attempted to steal Covid-19 vaccine technology from US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, according to South Korean intelligence officials.
It is currently unclear as to what, if any, data was stolen.”
Moderna Provides U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Update: “Moderna expects to deliver 100 million doses to the U.S. Government by end of March 2021.
Moderna expects to deliver 100 million additional doses by end of May 2021 followed by another 100 million additional doses by end of July 2021.”
Fauci more cautious on COVID-19 vaccine rollout, pushing ‘open season’ to late May or June: “‘We were expecting a greater number of doses from Johnson & Johnson, and it looks like, even though it’s a good vaccine, that we’re not going to have a substantial amount of doses until we get into April and May,’ he said…”
FDA could reject AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine on efficacy and manufacturing shortfalls:analyst: “It was bad enough when a study released last week concluded that AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was largely ineffective against the aggressive B.1.351 variant that recently emerged in South Africa. Now, analysts are wondering whether inconsistent manufacturing of the vaccine for the clinical trials may have muddied the results—concerns that could give the FDA pause when considering the vaccine for emergency use.
That was the conclusion of a note SVB Leerink analysts sent to clients Wednesday, in which they laid out both the bear and bull cases for FDA authorization of AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine. The bottom line? The bear case is worrisome, they said.”
Key things to know about Biden's agenda to battle Covid-19: A good summary of this issue, including last night’s CNN town hall meeting.
About healthcare IT
Humana to pilot new tech-enabled chronic care management platform: “Humana is launching a pilot for a new, tech-enabled chronic care management platform.
Humana Care Support will harness enhanced data analytics to create an integrated, personalized experience for members, the company said in an announcement provided first to Fierce Healthcare.
The program will also offer members with chronic illnesses access to a multidisciplinary care team to address their individual needs. The team includes a nurse, a pharmacist, a social worker and a behavioral health expert, Humana said.
The model is designed to integrate the social determinants of health and value-based care into its personalized approach, according to the announcement.”
FDA Selects First Head of Medical Device Cybersecurity:”The FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health has appointed Kevin Fu as acting director of its newly created medical device cybersecurity division.
A prominent medical device security researcher at the University of Michigan, Fu has trained hundreds of engineers at medical device companies in cybersecurity engineering.”
About pharma
AbbVie, Novo Nordisk lead pharma TV advertisers into big-spending January: “Pharma marketers are continuing their TV ad push into 2021. January pharma TV spending picked up where December ended—matching branded ad spending among the top 10 almost dollar for dollar.
The highest spenders racked up $216 million for the month after a robust $217 million December, according to data from real-time TV ad tracker iSpot.tv.”
How does all that spending really translate into sales?
McKinsey's Opioid Woes Far From Over Despite $600M Deals: “Plaintiffs lawyers who spearheaded opioid litigation against pharmaceutical companies are opening a new front against McKinsey & Co. on behalf of local governments, indicating that the consulting giant's settlements worth $600 million with nearly every state won't end its legal troubles. One sign of the emerging onslaught played out during a Tuesday court hearing over New York Attorney General Letitia James' requested approval of a $32 million settlement for the Empire State. The tentative settlement is among more than 50 deals with states and territories that McKinsey announced earlier this month…”
Bristol Myers, Sanofi To Appeal $834M Hawaii Order On Plavix: The headline speaks for itself. See previous blog for the story.
An mRNA vaccine delivered in hydrogel shows promise as a durable cancer immunotherapy: “…scientists at China’s National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) have designed a hydrogel to deliver an mRNA vaccine with an immune-stimulating adjuvant. When injected into mice with melanoma, the vaccine stayed active for at least 30 days, inhibiting tumor growth and preventing metastasis, according to results published in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.
The results showed that the hydrogel delivery system holds potential for helping mRNA vaccines achieve long-lasting anti-tumor effects as cancer immunotherapy, the researchers said.”
As Drug Prices Keep Rising, State Lawmakers Propose Tough New Bills to Curb Them: A good summary of some state efforts to lower pharma costs.
About the public’s health
Recommended Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule: United States, 2021: Open access statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A comparative analysis of premature heart disease- and cancer-related mortality in women in the USA, 1999–2018: “The mortality gap between cancer and heart disease is decreasing among women <65 years. Intensive cardiovascular health interventions are required focusing on vulnerable young demographic subgroups and underserved regional areas to meet the American Heart Association’s Impact Goal and Million Hearts Initiative.”