First Edition: June 21, 2024

KFF Health News: Super Bowl Parade Shooting Survivors Await Promised Donations While Bills Pile Up
Abigail Arellano keeps her son Samuel’s medical bills in a blue folder in a cabinet above the microwave. Even now, four months after the 11-year-old was shot at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade, the bills keep coming. There’s one for $1,040 for the ambulance ride to the hospital that February afternoon. Another for $2,841.17 from an emergency room visit they made three days after the shooting because his bullet wound looked infected. More follow-ups and counseling in March added another $1,500. (Lowe and Sable-Smith, 6/21)

AP: WHO, Eli Lilly Caution Patients Against Fake Versions Of Weight-Loss Drugs
The World Health Organization and drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. are warning people to be wary of fake versions of popular weight-loss and diabetes medicines. WHO said Thursday that it has fielded several reports of fake semaglutide — the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic — in all geographic regions of the world since 2022. (6/20)

Reuters: Lilly Files More Lawsuits To Curb Sales Of Counterfeit Mounjaro
U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly said on Thursday it was suing six more entities including medical spas and wellness centers for selling products claiming to contain tirzepatide, the active ingredient in its popular diabetes drug, Mounjaro. Tirzepatide was approved late last year as Zepbound for weight loss, and Lilly is the only company that has the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell the drug. (6/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Wall Street Is Chasing Ozempic Wannabes
Gilead Sciences, a biotech company focused on treatments for cancer and HIV, isn’t pitching itself as an obesity-drug developer. But that hasn’t stopped some Wall Street analysts from trying to do that on its behalf. Seasoned Jefferies analyst Michael Yee published a market-moving note to investors last week: He dug up recent patents and cross-referenced them with prior data to unearth what looked like the makings of an early-stage metabolic program that could one day become an obesity program. (Wainer, 6/20)

Reuters: Biden-Era Policy Against Hospital Web Trackers Unlawful, Judge Rules
A federal judge in Texas on Thursday ruled that guidance issued by President Joe Biden's administration that bars hospitals and other medical providers from using online tracking technologies that monitor users of their websites was unlawful. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth sided with two hospital trade groups including the American Hospital Association and two local healthcare systems in finding that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services overstepped its authority when it adopted the privacy-promoting guidance policy. (6/20)

AP: Change Healthcare To Start Notifying Customers Who Had Data Exposed In Cyberattack
Change Healthcare is starting to notify hospitals, insurers and other customers that they may have had patient information exposed in a massive cyberattack. The company also said Thursday that it expects to begin notifying individuals or patients in late July. (6/20)

The Hill: Biden Administration Bans Kaspersky Software Over Russian Ties
The Biden administration is issuing a total ban on the use of Kaspersky Lab’s software over its ties to Russia. The company’s software has been a concern of the U.S. government since at least 2017 because of the Russian government’s alleged influence over the software. The Russian government has total access to Kaspersky systems and access to all its customer’s data, ABC News reported. (Irwin, 6/20)

Politico: When AI Predicts Trouble, Doctors Take Note
AI-powered alerts that warn doctors when their patients’ conditions are in danger of deteriorating could save lives, according to researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. How so? Researchers divided 2,740 Mount Sinai medical-surgical unit patients into two groups. ... Patients in the AI intervention group were 43 percent more likely to receive a more rapid response and care, including medicine to support their hearts and blood circulation, and were less likely to die within 30 days compared with the control group. (Svirnovskiy, Schumaker, Payne and Reader, 6/20)

AP: Here’s The Landscape 2 Years After The Supreme Court Overturned A National Right To Abortion
Abortion is now banned at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, in 14 Republican-controlled states. In three other states, it’s barred after about the first six weeks, which is before many know they are pregnant. Most Democratic-led states have taken actions to protect abortion rights, and become sanctuaries for out-of-state patients seeking care. That’s changed the landscape of abortion access, making it more of a logistical and financial ordeal for many in conservative states. But it has not reduced the overall number of procedures done each month across the U.S. (Mulvihill, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Democrats Seek To Repeal Comstock Abortion Rule, Fearing Trump Crackdown
“There is a very clear, well-organized plan afoot by the MAGA Republicans to use Comstock as a tool to ban medication abortion, and potentially all abortions,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who on Thursday introduced legislation to repeal the Comstock Act’s abortion provisions. “My job is to take that tool away.” (Diamond and Kitchener, 6/20)

The Hill: Mark Kelly, Gabby Giffords Share IVF Journey To Highlight Challenges To Reproductive Rights
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), opened up about their past fertility struggles to stress the importance of alternative pregnancy options, which they argued are under threat by politicians. In a personal essay published Thursday in People magazine, Kelly and Giffords described how a gunman in 2011 took away their dreams of having a child together, and their concern politicians will do the same for Americans. (Nazzaro, 6/20)

The Hill: Supreme Court Abortion Pill Decision Ties Issue To Trump-Biden Race
The Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone means the drug’s future is now firmly tied to the 2024 presidential election. Anti-abortion groups said they were dealt only a temporary setback by last week’s ruling and are planning the path forward on how best to restrict access or get the drug removed from the market completely. (Weixel, 6/20)

Reuters: US FDA Proposes To Remove Switching Study Requirement For Biosimilars
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed that biosimilar drugs seeking agency's interchangeable designation will no longer need studies showing the impact of switching between them and the branded drug. ... The designation allows pharmacists to substitute branded drugs with their close copies easily. AbbVie's (ABBV.N) top-selling arthritis drug Humira has held onto its share of more than 80% of patients even after facing competition from nine lower-priced biosimilar rivals in the U.S. in the last year. (6/20)

Reuters: US, China Hold High-Level Talks On Anti-Narcotics Cooperation
The United States and China held high-level talks on anti-narcotics cooperation on Thursday, following a breakthrough in bilateral work this week that saw them jointly go after a major drug-linked money laundering operation. The U.S. and China restarted talks on counter-narcotics and law enforcement cooperation at the start of the year and China's public security department has lauded the case as a successful example of anti-drug cooperation between the two superpowers. (Slodkowski, 6/20)

Reuters: US Sanctions Mexican Cartel On Fentanyl, Yellen Issues China Guidance To Banks
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday announced new sanctions on leaders of a Mexican drug cartel involved in trafficking fentanyl and its pre-cursor chemicals into the U.S. as part of a broader push to try to stem the flow of the deadly synthetic opioid. Yellen announced the sanctions against eight leaders of the La Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel during a trip to Georgia, a key battleground state in the Nov. 5 presidential election. (Mckay and Lawder, 6/20)

Stat: 25 Years Ago, SCOTUS Outlawed Segregation Of Disabled People
As a toddler, Veronica Ayala loved Fridays. At 5 o’clock sharp, her mom whisked her away from the grim Moody State School for Cerebral Palsied Children for a 48-hour reprieve. Ayala’s house was mere minutes away, but the doctors insisted that she had to live at the Galveston, Texas institution during the week so she could learn how to walk. (Broderick, 6/21)

Fortune Well: America's Kids Are Going Hungry Over The Summer
Classes ending in June means boundless joy for kids, right? Not if they’re among the 30 million students who qualify for the federally-assisted meal program and who now likely face “summer hunger”—the result of food-insecure families losing access to the free breakfasts and lunches their children rely on at school throughout the rest of the year, bringing more anxiety, health issues, and academic decline. (Greenfield, 6/21)

The New York Times: Pregnant Women Are Particularly Vulnerable To The Heat, Doctors Warn
The heat wave sweeping through the United States poses a particular threat to pregnant women, especially those in their third trimester, doctors are warning. “Heat is an underappreciated risk for the health of the pregnancy,” said Dr. Nathaniel DeNicola, an environmental health expert at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “Of all the associations that we hear about connecting environmental factors like what you eat or what you drink to risks, this one has quite a bit of science behind it,” he said. (Caryn Rabin, 6/20)

Reuters: Birth Rates Halve In Richer Countries As Costs Weigh, OECD Report Says
Birth rates have dropped sharply in some of the world's richest states and are likely to stay low as economic worries leave people weighing the costs of having children, a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. Many in OECD member countries were now choosing to have children later in life or not at all, it said in a paper released on Thursday. "Both young men and women increasingly find meaning in life outside of parenthood," it added. (Allievi, 6/20)

Newsweek: Your Love Of Coffee May Be In Your Genes, Study Reveals
Are you a coffee lover? It might be down to your DNA. ... In a new study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, researchers from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University in Ontario and the University of California San Diego combed through large volumes of genetic data, as well as self-reported coffee consumption, to determine whether there were any clear relationships between DNA and coffee intake. (Dewan, 6/20)

The New York Times: Can Women Benefit From Viagra? 
Could the drug used to treat erectile dysfunction help women who have difficulties with arousal? ... Daré, a pharmaceutical company, is in the process of seeking approval from the F.D.A. for its topical sildenafil cream, which it plans to market specifically to women. Yet the research, including a study from Daré out today, suggests that if the drug is at all effective at increasing arousal in women, it’s only likely to do so for a small subset. (Haridasani Gupta, 6/20)

Stat: Gestational Diabetes Needs Earlier Intervention, Experts Say
Gestational diabetes has long been diagnosed between weeks 24 and 28 of pregnancy. But a recent randomized control study called Treatment of Booking Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, or TOBOGM, which was started in 2018 and whose results were published earlier this year, found that treating gestational diabetes before week 20 reduced the risk of severe perinatal complications, including preterm birth, low birthweight, stillbirth, and respiratory distress. (Merelli, 6/20)

CIDRAP: Study: Babies Whose Moms Had High Pandemic Stress Had Altered Brain Growth
The infants of mothers with high anxiety and stress levels amid the COVID-19 pandemic showed differences in brain development, suggests a study posted today in JAMA Network Open. ... Newborns of mothers with elevated distress showed median reductions in brain volumes of white matter (−0.36 cubic centimeters [cm3]), right hippocampus (−0.35 cm3), and left amygdala (−0.49 cm3) compared with infants of women with low distress. (Van Beusekom, 6/20)

Newsweek: Brain May Shrink After Surgical Menopause, Doctors Warn
Removing both of a woman's ovaries before natural menopause may reduce the integrity of white matter in their brains, scientists have found. For most women this operation, known as surgical menopause, can be lifesaving or at least life-changing. In many cases, it is performed as a preventative measure in those who are at an increased risk of ovarian or breast cancer. For others, it is used to reduce the pain caused by endometriosis, a condition where womb tissues grow outside of the uterus. (Dewan, 6/20)

CIDRAP: Study Suggests Cancer Patients Should Stay Current On COVID-19 Boosters
Yesterday in Nature Communications a study shows cancer that patients who are up to date on vaccines and have received COVID-19 boosters are more protected against death and serious complications than unvaccinated patients. Cancer patients were not included in key randomized clinical trials on vaccine efficacy (VE), the authors of the study write, but they are at increased risk of death and serious illness from COVID-19 infections. (Soucheray, 6/20)

CIDRAP: Rebyota Fecal Transplant Offers Durable Protection After Antibiotic Exposure, Study Finds
A microbiota-based live biotherapeutic for treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) remained effective after subsequent antibiotic exposure, researchers reported this week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. In a post-hoc analysis of a phase 2 trial evaluating the safety, efficacy, and durability of Rebyota fecal microbiota transplantation for preventing rCDI, the researchers evaluated patients who received non-CDI antibiotics for up to 2 years after Rebyota administration. (Dall, 6/20)

AP: Gene Therapy May Cure Rare Diseases. But Drugmakers Have Few Incentives, Leaving Families Desperate 
Robin Alderman faces an agonizing reality: Gene therapy might cure her son Camden’s rare, inherited immune deficiency. But it’s not available to him. ... Collectively, about 350 million people worldwide suffer from rare diseases, most of which are genetic. But each of the 7,000 individual disorders affects perhaps a few in a million people or less. There’s little commercial incentive to develop or bring to market these one-time therapies to fix faulty genes or replace them with healthy ones. (Ungar, 6/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Inside CVS’s Strategy To Improve The Pharmacy Experience
When it comes to customer experience at the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chains, there is plenty of room for improvement, according to Tilak Mandadi, the chief digital, data, analytics and technology officer at CVS Health CVS. Among other things, customers can be caught off guard by the price of their prescriptions when they go to pay, they might face never-ending menu options when calling customer service, and if they want to quickly pick up toiletries, they often find them locked up in cases. A shortage of pharmacists isn’t helping matters, either. (Bousquette, 6/20)

Reuters: Industry Groups Back Drugmakers' Appeal In Zantac Cancer Lawsuits
A bid by GSK and other drugmakers to stop more than 70,000 lawsuits in Delaware over discontinued heartburn drug Zantac has received the backing of leading U.S. industry groups, including the United States Chamber of Commerce and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. (Pierson, 6/20)

Reuters: UnitedHealth To Pay $1 Mln For Violating New York's Birth Control Coverage Mandate
A UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), opens new tab unit has agreed to pay a $1 million penalty to New York for failing to cover all federally approved birth control without restriction as required by state law, and to refund people who were wrongly denied coverage, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday. (Pierson, 6/20)

Modern Healthcare: International Nurse Visa Pause Extended Despite Staffing Gaps
The government paused its processing of new visa applications until fiscal 2025, leaving thousands of international nurses in limbo as they look to fill health systems’ pervasive staffing gaps. Each year, a pool of around 8,600 eligible, internationally educated nurses compete with other professionals that have bachelor’s-level degrees for 40,000 employment-based visa slots. (Devereaux, 6/20)

AP: California Workplace Safety Board Approves Heat Protections For Indoor Workers, Excluding Prisons
On the first day of summer with parts of California sweltering under a heat advisory, a state worker safety board approved standards Thursday that would require employers to protect workers from indoor heat, but would exempt state correctional facilities. The board of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health first passed indoor heat rules in March. However, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration blocked them over concerns about costs to prisons and other state entities. (Pineda, 6/21)

AP: Bill Allowing Doctor-Assisted Suicide In Delaware Fails In Senate 
A bill allowing doctor-assisted suicide in Delaware failed to win approval in the state Senate on Thursday after narrowly clearing the House earlier this year, but it could come back next week. The legislation failed in the Democrat-led Senate in a 9-9 tie after three members of the Democratic caucus spoke against the measure. No Republican lawmakers voted for it. (Chase, 6/20)

AP: North Carolina Senate Gives Initial Approval To Legalizing Medical Marijuana
North Carolina got a step closer to legalizing medical marijuana on Thursday when the state Senate gave it its initial approval. The Senate approved a measure legalizing medical marijuana in its first of two votes, 33-9, with nine Republicans breaking from the rest of the party to oppose it. If approved a second time, the bill will go to the state House, which has historically blocked Senate attempts to legalize the drug’s medical use. (Seminera, 6/20)

The Washington Post: Weeks After Nursing Home Lawsuit, Maryland Health Official Resigns
The head of the Maryland agency tasked with regulating nursing home and hospital safety will resign effective June 27, several weeks after a lawsuit revealed a substantial backlog in inspections and complaint investigations. ... The Health Department did not provide a reason for her resignation in a news release Thursday afternoon. (Shepherd, 6/20)