Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
A Novel Male Birth Control Method Shows Promise — In Mice
CBS News: New Male Birth Control Shows Promising Results In Lab Mice
A new form of birth control for men is showing promising results in lab mice, rendering them "temporarily infertile" via a single injectable dose, according to a study published on Tuesday in the peer-reviewed medical journal Nature. (Mandler, 2/14)
The Washington Post: Quick-Acting Male Birth Control Drug Shows Promise In The Lab
In 2018, Melanie Balbach, a postdoctoral scientist at Weill Cornell Medicine, surprised her bosses with a remarkable video of mouse sperm — just sitting there. A colleague in the lab had asked for help injecting mice with an experimental drug developed for eye disease, and Balbach agreed, with one condition. She knew that the potential eye drug targeted a molecular pathway that was crucial for male fertility. On a scientific hunch, she wanted to check what happened to normally thrashing, free-swimming sperm. (Johnson, 2/14)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Reuters: Judge Indicates Intention To Dismiss J&J Talc Unit Bankruptcy
The bankruptcy case filed by Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) subsidiary shouldering talc-related lawsuits will soon be dismissed unless a U.S appeals court agrees to reconsider its decision to nix the company's attempt to offload the litigation into Chapter 11 proceedings, a federal judge said on Tuesday. (Spector, 2/14)
Bloomberg: Zantac Cancer Risk Data Was Kept Quiet By Manufacturer Glaxo For 40 Years
The small British company was sometimes called Glaxo University, because it conducted important pharmaceutical research that rarely resulted in profitable drugs. Then the scientists at Glaxo Laboratories created a molecule they called ranitidine, and in 1978 the company was granted a US patent. The molecule was new, but not novel. The scientists had, as scientists sometimes do, looked for a way to mimic the success of an established drug—in this case, one that healed ulcers and could be used to treat heartburn. (Edney, Berfield and Feeley, 2/15)
CIDRAP: WHO Releases Draft Of Framework For Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance In Healthcare
The World Health Organization (WHO) today released a draft of a "people-centered" framework for addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in healthcare. The framework consists of 13 high-level interventions in the human healthcare sector that were developed through internal WHO consultations, multidisciplinary expert opinion, and review of existing evidence. The interventions span four pillars that are seen as critical to addressing AMR in healthcare settings: prevention of infections, access to essential health services, timely and accurate diagnosis, and appropriate and quality-assured treatment. (Dall, 2/14)
