COVID-19 and search for treatments
- Treating certain coronavirus patients early with hydroxychloroquine led to a marked reduction in the death rate (13 percent vs. 26 percent of patients who didn’t get the drug) without heart-related side effects, according to a new study by Henry Ford Health System in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Dr. Marcus Zervos, head of infectious disease at Henry Ford Health System, said the drug helped prevent an inflammatory response to the virus when it was given before the patient had a severe immune reaction.
- The United States set another single-day high of new coronavirus infections with 57,497 reported on Friday as at least 20 states set highs for the average of new cases over seven days.
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said during congressional testimony that the number of coronavirus cases could reach 100,000 per day as the current outbreak in the South and West “puts the entire country at risk.”
- Gilead Sciences Inc. said it will charge U.S. hospitals $520 for each dose of its COVID-19 drug remdesivir for standard patients with commercial health insurance, which comes out to $3,120 for a short-term treatment course and $5,720 for a long-term course. Gilead, which initially donated the drug to providers after it received emergency use authorization in May, said it will charge $390 per dose for government health program beneficiaries, which comes out to $2,340 per patient for short-term use and $4,290 for longer courses of treatment.
- An analysis from the White House drug policy office showed drug overdose deaths have increased 11.4 percent in the first four months of 2020 compared to the same period a year earlier due to increases in substance use attributed to anxiety, social isolation and depression.
Courts
- In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, which would have left the state with one abortion clinic under the guidelines. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the four liberal justices in the decision, citing precedent from a 2016 Supreme Court ruling against a Texas abortion law that Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote was “almost word-for-word identical” to Louisiana’s law.
- Federal prosecutors charged Jorge A. Perez, a Miami entrepreneur whose Empower companies had run or managed several rural hospitals, with operating a $1.4 billion lab-billing fraud scheme that would send blood and urine tests from people who never entered the hospitals to outside labs, resulting in insurers being charged at higher rates under federal regulations.
- Former Indivior PLC Chief Executive Shaun Thaxter pleaded guilty to misbranding the company’s Suboxone Film treatment for opioid and narcotic addictions and has agreed to pay $600,000 in fines in addition to facing up to a year in prison.
