Health
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Essential health care industry news & intel to start your day.
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April 26, 2023
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Today’s Top News
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Approximately 600,000 people would become uninsured if House Republicans’ plan to institute Medicaid work requirements as part of the GOP’s debt bill took effect, according to the Congressional Budget Office. While the CBO estimates that about 15 million people a year could be forced to prove they work to keep their benefits, the Biden administration estimated that 21 million people would be subject to the requirements and at risk of losing coverage. (Axios)
- More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation that would expand Medicare’s power to negotiate drug prices, including measures to lower the amount of time before a drug is eligible for negotiations and to increase the overall amount Medicare can save. (Endpoints News) Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair and ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, respectively, introduced a package of measures that would increase oversight of pharmacy benefit managers and plan to hold a hearing on the matter May 2, the latest steps by Congress targeting the pharmacy middlemen. (Modern Healthcare)
- The Food and Drug Administration gave accelerated approval to Biogen Inc.’s drug to treat a rare form of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, that is estimated to affect less than 500 people in the United States, but the agency will require further research on the medication’s effectiveness. (The Associated Press) Meanwhile, Biogen Chief Executive Christopher Viehbacher said on a first-quarter earnings call that the company is not worried about competing with Eli Lilly & Co. as both bring new Alzheimer’s treatments to market. (CNBC)
- Veterans have filed 500,000 benefit claims related to toxic exposure while serving, one of the largest expansions of coverage through the Department of Veterans Affairs in decades, the agency said. The claims were made by veterans who were exposed to burn pits, radioactive materials, herbicides and other toxins and come after Congress passed the PACT Act last year, which the VA said has resulted in more than $1 billion of awarded benefits. (The Wall Street Journal)
Worth watching today:
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Two House meetings:
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Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee hearing: “Provider Relief Fund and Healthcare Workforce Shortages.” Carole Johnson, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, is scheduled to testify on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee hearing: “Lowering Unaffordable Costs: Legislative Solutions to Increase Transparency and Competition in Health Care.” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure is scheduled to testify.
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Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: “The Assault on Reproductive Rights in a Post-Dobbs America.”
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The FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee meeting to review research programs in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, among others.
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The Medical Device Manufacturers Association’s annual meeting begins, featuring Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Annie Kuster (D-N.H.).
- Humana Inc. and Universal Health Services Inc. report their first-quarter earnings.
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| A MESSAGE FROM MORNING CONSULT |
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What Else You Need to Know
Scope of COVID-19 funding cuts emerges as debt limit flashpoint
Aidan Quigley, Roll Call
Democrats are jumping on the House GOP plan to recoup unspent pandemic aid in their debt limit bill, charging that the move will harm agencies counting on that funding, including the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill, which Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is hoping to get on the floor this week, would rescind $72 billion in unobligated pandemic relief aid.
Biden made a lot of campaign promises in 2020. He couldn’t meet them all.
Adam Cancryn, Politico
Whether voters grant the president a second term could depend on how successful they think he was on key pledges.
The ongoing search for long COVID treatments
Sabrina Moreno, Axios
As the federal government continues to wrestle with a response to long COVID, Food and Drug Administration officials are turning to patients who’ve experimented with unproven treatments for clues about how to manage the condition and design clinical trials.
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Biden’s 2024 re-election bid puts abortion front and center
Oriana González, Axios
The Biden administration wasted little time making it clear that abortion access will be a cornerstone of President Biden’s 2024 re-election bid as red states continue to enact bans and restrictions.
Abortion Pill Legal Fight Leaves FDA Grappling With Response
Celine Castronuovo et al., Bloomberg Law
The US Supreme Court’s decision to send back to a lower court a fight over the FDA approval of a widely used abortion pill tees up complicated legal questions over politicized medical treatments and the federal government’s authority over them.
Nikki Haley Tells Republicans to Take Pragmatic Approach on Abortion
John McCormick, The Wall Street Journal
Nikki Haley, the only woman in the 2024 Republican presidential field, called for her party to be more pragmatic in its approach to abortion and to work harder to find consensus with Democrats in an effort to reduce frequency of the procedure.
Pence nods to role of judges in conservative push on abortion
Ryan Tarinelli, Roll Call
Former Vice President Mike Pence told a legal group Tuesday in Washington that the next Republican administration should work to curtail the power of executive agencies and pointed to recent legal fights over abortion access.
Study finds gun assault rates doubled for children in 4 major cities during pandemic
Sammy Caiola, WHYY
A study of roughly 2,700 shootings in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia found widening racial disparities after the pandemic began, with black children the most frequent victims.
This group is seeing ‘staggering’ rise in uterine cancer. Experts don’t know why.
Nada Hassanein, USA Today
Uterine cancer is generally more common in older women and is long known to disproportionately affect Black women. Now, new research adds to growing evidence that uterine cancer is also rising rapidly among reproductive-aged Hispanic women, adding to the alarming pattern of the disparity among women of color.
We’ve Had a Cheaper, More Potent Ozempic Alternative for Decades
Yasmin Tayag, The Atlantic
New weight-loss drugs are getting all the hype, but bariatric surgery is still the “gold standard” for treating obesity.
The truth about teens, social media and the mental health crisis
Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR News
A striking decline in teen mental health has coincided with the rise of smartphones and social media. Is social media causing the mental health challenges? Finally, research can answer that question.
More sanctions for deadly fentanyl if bill becomes law
Fatima Hussein, The Associated Press
Mexico and China are the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking. Nearly all the precursor chemicals that are needed to make fentanyl are coming from China.
In Oklahoma, a woman was told to wait until she’s ‘crashing’ for abortion care
Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News
Oklahoma has three overlapping abortion bans, with different and sometimes contradictory definitions and exceptions.
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Universal Health Services boasts $163M profit in Q1 driven by acute, behavioral volume increases
Dave Muoio, Fierce Healthcare
Major volume gains across both its acute and behavioral care businesses led Universal Health Services to a $163.1 million profit for the opening frame of 2023, the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based company announced Tuesday after market close.
Health Centers Look to Funding Lifeline as Challenges Loom
Ganny Belloni, Bloomberg Law
A Biden administration budget proposal would provide a lifeline to the nation’s community health centers as they face the twin challenges of an expected drop in revenue accompanied by an influx of patients losing their Medicaid coverage.
Amid contradictory laws, hospitals in one state were unable to explain policies on emergency abortion care, study finds
Jen Christensen, CNN
After the US Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion last year with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, several states quickly passed laws that restricted such procedures. A report released Tuesday and described in the medical journal the Lancet finds that the laws in at least one state left workers at many hospitals confused about how to proceed.
AmerisourceBergen, TPG to acquire specialty practice network OneOncology in $2.1B deal
Heather Landi, Fierce Healthcare
The deal, which was announced Thursday, will enable AmerisourceBergen to diversify beyond its drug distribution business by expanding into the oncology space. The deal adds a network of cancer specialists to the company’s portfolio and builds up its practice management services. It also gives a boost to its specialty pharmaceuticals business.
Tenet boosts full-year profit forecast after gains in Q1 volume growth
Sydney Halleman, Healthcare Dive
The company said on Tuesday that quarterly profit climbed 2.9% from a year earlier to $143 million, beating an earlier forecast that net income would range between $90 million and $125 million in the period.
LCMC ordered by judge not to close HCA-acquired hospitals as legal battle continues
Sydney Halleman, Healthcare Dive
Judge Amy Berman Jackson for the U.S. District Court ordered that all service lines must remain available at the three hospitals — Tulane Medical Center, Tulane Lakeside Hospital and Lakeview Regional Medical Center — and that LCMC can’t terminate or renegotiate contracts with health insurers at the facilities.
“Less about people and more about profits”: Investors’ role in next week’s closure of San Antonio hospital under scrutiny
Jonathan Lapook et al., CBS News
The hospital has been subject to some of the same opaque financial transactions that have occurred prior to other hospital failures, such as Delaware County Memorial Hospital in suburban Philadelphia.
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Pharma, Biotech and Devices
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Humana raises 2023 profit view on government insurance strength
Reuters
The company had in February raised its annual forecast for Medicare Advantage membership additions to 775,000, counting on gains from redirecting resources out of its employer-backed insurance business that is in the process of shutting down.
GSK says EU pharma legislation overhaul could trigger investment shift
Maggie Fick and Natalie Grover, Reuters
British drugmaker GSK on Wednesday warned that the overhaul of laws governing the EU’s pharmaceuticals industry risks forcing companies to invest and innovate elsewhere, which would hurt EU efforts to improve access to medicines.
Roche Q1 sales decline tempered by swift uptake of new eye drug
Ludwig Burger, Reuters
Switzerland’s Roche said first-quarter sales dropped 7% on falling demand for its COVID-19 therapies and diagnostics kits, less steep than feared by analysts due to strong revenue growth from a new eye drug.
Biogen’s new strategy brings more pipeline cuts, but leaves deal options open
Jacob Bell, BioPharma Dive
Biogen has stopped or paused several drug programs as part of a larger effort to cut costs and prioritize certain research. The decision, disclosed Tuesday in the company’s latest earnings report, comes as sales of its marketed medicines for brain and nervous system disorders continue to fall.
Mpox outbreak was wake-up call about need to prep for smallpox: Vaccine maker
Spencer Kimball, CNBC
Mpox is in the same virus family as smallpox. Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to protect against both pathogens.
Rare Disease Bill Would Uphold FDA’s Use of Law, Avert Lawsuits
Jeannie Baumann, Bloomberg Law
Rare disease drugmakers would retain their special status when pursuing treatments especially for children under legislation scheduled to be marked up by a Senate panel next week.
Supply of cancer drug Pluvicto should increase in second half of the year, company says
Berkeley Lovelace Jr., NBC News
Pluvicto, a drug for advanced prostate cancer, started having supply problems in February as demand increased. The Food and Drug Administration listed it as being in short supply in early March.
RNA startup Orbital cinches $270 million investment
Allison DeAngelis, Stat News
A new biotech founded by veterans of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Beam Therapeutics, ARCH Venture Partners, and multiple academic institutions, closed a $270 million Series A round on Wednesday.
IVF would be covered for federal employees under proposed bipartisan bill
Mariel Padilla, The 19th
The legislation would require the largest employer-sponsored health insurance program in the world to cover assisted reproductive treatments and services.
Morphic study shows promise — and blockbuster potential — for a pill to treat ulcerative colitis
Adam Feuerstein, Stat News
Morphic Therapeutic said Tuesday that an experimental oral medicine induced complete remissions in 26% of patients with ulcerative colitis — achieving the goal of a mid-stage study. More importantly, the study results suggest the Morphic drug, taken as a twice-daily pill, has the potential to match the efficacy and tolerability of Entyvio, an IV-administered treatment and a $5 billion-plus commercial blockbuster for its maker, Takeda.
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Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
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At-home clinical trials are the future
Ben Green, Stat News
My experience has shown me that most patients can set up safe, sound conditions at home and take medications and measurements accurately. With the right technology and advice, clinical trials can happen at home, too. It’s time to put the days of insisting that trial participants travel for every appointment behind us.
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