• U.S. COVID-19-related deaths declined by 47% between 2021 and 2022, but the illness still killed more than 500 people a day, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 was the country’s fourth leading cause of death last year (186,702), following heart disease (699,659), cancer (607,790) and “unintentional injury” (218,064), which includes drug overdoses. (The Washington Post)
• Cigna Group reported revenue of $46.5 billion and profit of $1.3 billion in the first quarter, both in line with the first quarter of 2022. (Fierce Healthcare) Moderna Inc.’s first-quarter sales declined more than 60% year over year to $1.9 billion, and its net income totaled $79 million, compared with $3.66 billion in the year-ago period, as demand for COVID-19 vaccines dropped. (CNBC)
• Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra confirmed that Amy St. Pierre, a CDC employee, was killed during a shooting at an Atlanta medical facility on Wednesday. Becerra said in a statement that “there is no escaping that gun violence is tearing the American family apart and has become a public health crisis.” (The Hill)
• HHS said in a court filing to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that hospitals must be required to provide abortion care to people in emergencies in every state, even if the procedure is illegal in that state. (Bloomberg Law) Meanwhile, North Carolina’s state Senate passed a 12-week abortion ban that Gov. Roy Cooper (D) has already said he will veto, though the ban will likely still take effect as Republicans have a veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature. (Axios)

More U.S. Women Are Avoiding Unwanted or Mistimed Pregnancies

The New York Times

Senator pushes NIH for ‘formal’ review of Covid response

Sarah Owermohle, Stat News

The top-ranking Republican on the Appropriations subcommittee, West Virginia’s Shelley Capito, pushed acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak to formally review the agency’s Covid-19 response and research spending — and share it with the panel — a prospect he did not rule out at the end of the nearly two-hour hearing.

Covid drug and vaccine sales nosedive, denting biopharma revenue across the board

Lei Lei Wu, Endpoints News

Many of the pandemic players including Pfizer, Merck and Moderna have warned that Covid drug and vaccine sales would decline this year, especially when comparing the first three months of 2023 to the same quarter a year ago, when there was a resurgence in Covid cases due to new variants.

900,000 New Yorkers Lost at Least 3 Loved Ones to Covid

Sharon Otterman, The New York Times

Nearly one in four New Yorkers lost at least one person close to them, according to a newly released survey. The toll was even higher among people of color.

Testosterone access for transgender people could be limited as COVID public health emergency ends

Kate Sosin, The 19th

Patients in ‘care deserts’ were able to access gender-affirming care through telehealth providers and online clinics during the pandemic. Those resources may soon dwindle.

Abortion rights groups take on DeSantis and his six-week ban

Sally Goldenberg and Megan Messerly, Politico

Planned Parenthood is launching an effort to put abortion on the Florida ballot next year — setting the stage for a high-profile battle with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares to run for president.

Biden admin says Alabama health officials didn’t address sewage system failures disproportionately affecting Black residents

Yamiche Alcindor, NBC News

The administration has come to an agreement with the state to improve sewer service for Lowndes County, a largely Black, rural community whose residents have lived with raw sewage pooling all over their neighborhoods.

Florida lawmakers send gender-affirming care ban bill to DeSantis

Sareen Habeshian and Oriana González, Axios

The Florida Board of Medicine already barred health providers from offering this type of care to trans minors. If enacted, this bill would codify those restrictions into state law, and would also add criminal penalties for physicians who provide gender-affirming treatments.

WHO fires scientist who led COVID search over sex misconduct

Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press

Peter Ben Embarek, who led the WHO side of a joint team with scientists in China, was dismissed last year, the health agency said. WHO says it has stepped up efforts to root out sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment in recent months after a string of cases and incidents were reported in the press.

West Virginia settles with Kroger, opioid money now tops $1B

Leah Willingham, The Associated Press

West Virginia has settled with Kroger for $68 million over its role in distributing highly addictive prescription painkillers into the U.S. state that has lost more lives to opioid overdoses per capita than any other.

GOP prosecutor urges judge to toss Wisconsin abortion suit

Todd Richmond, The Associated Press

Attorneys for a Republican prosecutor urged a judge Thursday to toss out a lawsuit seeking to repeal Wisconsin’s 174-year-old abortion ban, arguing that a newer state law permitting pre-viability abortions complements the ban rather than supersedes it, as Democrats maintain.

Colorado Becomes the First State to Ban So-Called Abortion Pill Reversals

Claire Cleveland, KFF Health News

The controversial practice of administering progesterone to people after they have taken the abortion pill mifepristone may be coming to an end in Colorado. Pills have emerged as the latest front in the war over abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.

Judge extends suspension of Missouri AG’s transgender rule

Jim Salter, The Associated Press

Attorney General Andrew Bailey initially sought to implement the rule effective April 27, prompting a lawsuit on behalf of transgender people. St. Louis County Judge Ellen Ribaudo on Monday granted a temporary restraining order and originally scheduled a May 11 hearing on the lawsuit.

Lax Medicare Oversight Said Behind $580 Million in Faulty Outlays

Tony Pugh, Bloomberg Law

An estimated $580 million of the $1 billion that Medicare paid to providers for psychotherapy services during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic were improper reimbursements that did not comply with program requirements, a government watchdog agency reported Thursday.

Immigrants make up disproportionate share of uninsured people in U.S.

Arielle Dreher, Axios

Immigrant adults and children under the age of 65, including those who are undocumented, account for 8% of the U.S. population but make up nearly 32% of the uninsured population in the country, according to a new report from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“Patients are not hot potatoes”: How the fight over dialysis coverage is putting kidney failure patients at risk

Carrie Arnold, Stat News

A disproportionate number of people with kidney failure are low-income and from historically marginalized communities, making them unable to absorb even small increases in health care costs.

Carbon Health, Anthem BCBS publicly spar over contract negotiations

Paige Minemyer, Fierce Healthcare

In a rare peek behind the curtain at these discussions, Carbon published a blog post this week blasting the insurer for failing to “pay a living wage” for services rendered to its members in California. Elevance, which operates in the state as Anthem Blue Cross, has cut Carbon from its network as of March 17, according to the post.

Hospital margins inch up in March as volume, revenue growth outpace expenses

Dave Muoio, Fierce Healthcare

Hospital margins inched upward to “razor-thin, near-zero levels” in March, a month-to-month improvement driven by volume gains across inpatient and, to a greater extent, outpatient settings, according to the latest monthly report from Kaufman Hall.

Study: Mental health-related ER visits among young people nearly doubled in a decade

Sareen Habeshian, Axios

Between 2011 to 2020, emergency department visits among children, adolescents and young adults for mental health reasons approximately doubled, a group of researchers and physicians found.

Providers urge more action to combat Latino mental health crisis

Astrid Galván, Axios

The mental health crisis among Latinos is not letting up, and experts tell Axios it’s time for political leaders and others to step up and promote seeking help in a more culturally relevant way.

Why nursing school enrollment saw a decline in 2022

Mari Devereaux, Modern Healthcare

For the first time in more than 20 years, nursing schools experienced a year-over-year decline in students in 2022, though overall enrollment is still high.

Sutter Health opens 2023 with $194M gain, 2.3% operating margin

Dave Muoio, Fierce Healthcare

It’s a somewhat steadier start to the year than the nonprofit saw in Q1 2022, when it had reported a slightly stronger $95 million operating income (2.7% operating margin) but a $184 million net loss. The latter sum had been weighed down by shifting investment valuations and the $208 million disaffiliation of Samuel Merritt University.

California lawmakers OK emergency loans to failing hospitals

Adam Beam, The Associated Press

Alarmed by the closure of a rural hospital earlier this year, California lawmakers on Thursday voted to loan $150 million to struggling medical centers in the hope of preventing a cascade of similar failures across the state.

Drug Wholesalers Elude Congressional Scrutiny in Pricing Debate

Celine Castronuovo, Bloomberg Law

Wholesalers that distribute prescription drugs to pharmacies need scrutiny as Congress investigates the roles of supply chain middlemen in drug pricing, analysts say.

Lilly’s fortunes rise on back-to-back success for Alzheimer’s, obesity drugs

Jonathan Gardner, BioPharma Dive

Over the past year, Lilly’s valuation has climbed nearly 50% to exceed $400 billion, a few percentage points’ swing away from eclipsing Johnson & Johnson as the world’s largest drugmaker by market capitalization.

Manufacturing operations for Eli Lilly, Rentschler reprimanded by FDA

Eric Sagonowsky, Fierce Pharma

In Form 483 filings posted this week, the FDA flagged Lilly’s site in Indianapolis for three manufacturing-related shortfalls and Rentschler’s Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, site for five deficiencies.

Obesity Could Be Pharma’s Biggest Blockbuster Yet

David Wainer, The Wall Street Journal

Medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro are about to create one of the biggest drug categories of all time. Here’s why.

NIH systems for non-human primate research fall short, threatening biomedical research

Ed Silverman, Stat News

A worsening shortage of non-human primates and an inadequate government response threatens to undermine biomedical research in the U.S. and hamper the ability to respond to public health emergencies, a sweeping new report warns.

NIH grant recipients often fail to disclose agency support in patent applications

Ed Silverman, Stat News

Between 2012 and 2021, 14% of roughly 19,000 patent applications did not disclose financial support from the NIH or did not do so as required by federal law.

A biopharma CEO opens up about executive salaries — and why he wants to change the status quo

Michael Gibney, PharmaVoice

With leaders at the biggest biopharma companies bringing in millions, the CEO of Corvus Pharmaceuticals opted for a pay cut to pour more funds into science.

Next round of KRAS drugs stretch for their 4-minute mile in the footsteps of Amgen and Mirati

Annalee Armstrong, Fierce Biotech

The KRAS inhibitor scene has always been a bit braggadocious with Amgen and Mirati Therapeutics battling it out for the first-to-market advantage. But now, a new crop of scrappy KRAS upstarts has arrived on the medical conference circuit, trying to needle away at the leaders.

FDA Wants to Extend Pandemic Powers to Track Device Shortages

Jeannie Baumann, Bloomberg Law

The FDA has prevented about 350 device shortages thanks to authorities granted under Covid response laws that will expire next week, the agency’s head told a Senate panel.

At Musk’s brain-chip startup, animal-testing panel is rife with potential conflicts

Rachael Levy and Marisa Taylor, Reuters

Elon Musk’s brain-implant venture has filled an animal-research oversight board with company insiders who may stand to benefit financially as the firm reaches development goals, according to company documents and interviews with six current and former employees.

7 digital health ‘unicorns’ that have struggled

Gabriel Perna, Modern Healthcare

As the digital health funding market has shifted downwards, companies that were once deemed unicorns have had to lay off employees, sell lagging businesses and even file for bankruptcy. Some are pivoting to new product lines while others forge ahead.

Healthcare, AI startups stay afloat as global VC funding plummets

Annie Burky, Fierce Healthcare

In a year-over-year comparison, global funding reached $21 billion in April, down 56% from $47.8 billion the same month a year ago as venture investors continue to pull back, according to the report.

Telehealth declined nationally in February, Fair Health finds

Brian T. Horowitz, Healthcare Dive

In February, telehealth use declined in the four U.S. census regions: It dropped by 8.7% in the Midwest, 8.3% in the South, 6.2% in the West and 1.5% in the Northeast.