About Covid-19
WHO recommends Roche, Sanofi drugs for COVID-19 to cut death risk: “The World Health Organization on Tuesday recommended using arthritis drugs Actemra from Roche and Kevzara from Sanofi with corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients after data from some 11,000 patients showed they cut the risk of death.”
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count: There are still many states with increasing rates of infection.
Use of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine After Reports of Myocarditis Among Vaccine Recipients: Update from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — United States, June 2021: “Continued use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in all recommended age groups will prevent morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 that far exceed the number of cases of myocarditis expected. Information regarding the risk for myocarditis with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines should be disseminated to providers to share with vaccine recipients.”
Evaluation of Messenger RNA From COVID-19 BTN162b2 and mRNA-1273 Vaccines in Human Milk: “Vaccine-associated mRNA was not detected in 13 milk samples collected 4 to 48 hours after vaccination from 7 breastfeeding individuals. These results provide important early evidence to strengthen current recommendations that vaccine-related mRNA is not transferred to the infant and that lactating individuals who receive the COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccine should not stop breastfeeding. In addition, any residual mRNA below the limits of detection in our assay would undergo degradation by the infant gastrointestinal system, further reducing infant exposure.”
HHS takes N95 masks, portable ventilators off scarce medical supplies list: “HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra removed 17 items from the list, including N-95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators, portable ventilators and other specified personal protective equipment, supplies and equipment. HHS kept four items on the list, including medical gowns or apparel, certain laboratory reagents and materials, certain drug products, and syringes and hypodermic needles. These designated materials are subject to the hoarding prevention measures authorized under the executive order and the DPA. The action took effect July 1 and terminates Nov. 15, 2021.”
Israel, South Korea to Swap 700,000 Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccines: A great example of international cooperation: “Israel will ship about 700,000 expiring Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus doses to South Korea, in what is set to be the world's first COVID-19 vaccine swap…
In return, South Korea, which has received just 20% of the 192 million doses it preordered, will send an identical number of doses back to Israel in September or October.”
About the public’s health
Effects of menthol use and transitions in use on short-term and long-term cessation from cigarettes among US smokers: “We compared the probability of 30+ day and 12-month abstinence from cigarette smoking by menthol use status using two cohorts of US adult cigarette smokers who attempted to quit smoking in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health…
hese results demonstrate that menthol impaired menthol smokers’ attempts to quit smoking but switching from menthol improved success. This suggests that removing menthol may improve menthol smokers’ success during quit attempts.”
Studies like this one provide the rationale for the FDA’s attempts to ban menthol in tobacco products.
Moderna's first seasonal flu vaccine slides into clinic as pharma giants crowd into mRNA: “Moderna is developing mRNA-1010 to protect against common flu strains as recommended by the World Health Organization. The company is hoping to improve on traditional flu shots which are typically about 40% to 60% effective. Most of these shots are developed using eggs, which Moderna said can cause unintended changes to the vaccine virus.”
About health insurance
Marketplace Premiums and Participation in 2021: From the Urban Institute, a current overview of state-level analysis of ACA marketplace premiums. Just a glance at the spread in the figures in Table 1 will reveal why complaints about price rises and affordability vary so greatly across states .
Expansions could be coming to Medicare: The debate is between extending benefits and lowering the age of eligibility. “The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated that lowering the eligibility age to 60 would cost $200 billion over a decade.
In contrast, folding dental, vision and hearing coverage into the traditional Medicare program could cost $358 billion over the next 10 years — and possibly more.” [Emphases in the original.]
Nearly 1 in 5 deliveries could lead to a surprise medical bill, study finds: “The study found that nearly 20% of the families had one or more potential surprise bill for ‘delivery, newborn hospitalizations or both.’
Surprise bills could range based on the types of service provided. For instance, a delivery had one or more potential surprise medical bills with an average liability of $900.
However, a cesarean delivery had a potential liability of $1,825, the study said.”
Comparison of Spending on Common Generic Drugs by Medicare vs Costco Members: “Across more than 1.4 billion Medicare Part D claims for 184 products, the mean (SD) total prices were $12.02 ($18.47) and $24.32 ($41.07) for 30-day and 90-day prescription fills, respectively. Medicare overspent by 13.2% in 2017 and 20.6% in 2018 compared with Costco member prices for these prescriptions. Total overspending increased from $1.7 billion in 2017 to $2.6 billion in 2018.”
So much for Medicare being a prudent buyer.
Hospitals Often Charge Uninsured People the Highest Prices, New Data Show: This article was on the front page of the print edition of The Wall Street Journal today. The article claims that hospital “rates —and wide pricing differences—were confidential until Jan. 1, when a new federal rule required hospitals to make prices public.” Although specifics may only have become available then, this differential has been common knowledge for many years. The reason for the difference is not given until far down in the article: “Hospitals typically have a sticker price, often called the ‘chargemaster’ price, that can be the starting point for negotiations with insurers. Discounts off that sticker price tend to be steeper for those that bring large volumes of patients. Insurance plans offered under government programs like Medicare and Medicaid get even lower rates, tied to prices mandated by federal and state agencies.” In other words, hospitals aren’t out to soak the uninsured; instead they set prices high so their final discounted payments from insurers will be closer to what they want. The uninsured are unfortunate victims of this practice.
Health Insurance Deductibles and Health Care–Seeking Behaviors in a Consumer-Driven Health Care System With Universal Coverage: “In this cross-sectional study, high insurance plan deductibles were associated with forgoing of health care independent of socioeconomic status and preexisting conditions in a universal consumer-driven health care system with good population outcomes in Switzerland. Uncovering health care system design features that could lead to suboptimal population care may help decision makers improve their current health care system design to achieve better outcomes.”
Lesson: Universal coverage alone will not solve utilization problems. The underlying system needs to be properly designed as well.
About pharma
Six biopharma trends to watch in Q3: A good review of this issue.
Perrigo Completes Divestiture Of Generic Rx Business For $1.55 Billion: “Perrigo Company plc , a leading global provider of Consumer Self-Care Products, announced today that it has completed the previously announced sale of its Generic Rx Pharmaceuticals business to Altaris Capital Partners, LLC for $1.55 billion, with customary adjustments, completing Perrigo's transformation to a global consumer self-care company.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
HCA completes $400M purchase of majority stake in Brookdale Senior Living healthcare services: “HCA Healthcare has finalized its $400 million bid to purchase a majority stake in Brookdale Senior Living’s home health and hospice business as the hospital chain aims to branch out into the home health market.
The new venture adds 80 sites of care for the hospital chain. The nursing home giant Brookdale will retain a 20% equity stake in the healthcare services segment.”
About healthcare IT
Telehealth visits cut healthcare's carbon footprint in half, Kaiser Permanente study finds: Among the study’s findings: “Greenhouse gas emissions from transportation to and from outpatient visits, which increased by about 6 percent between 2015 and 2019, dropped sharply in 2020.
Ambulatory visit carbon intensity, a new metric that measures the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with a given outpatient visit, dropped by 51 percent. “