Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Amazon Drones Will Soon Bring Meds To Customers In College Station, Texas
AP: Amazon Will Start Testing Drones For Medication Deliveries
Amazon will soon make prescription drugs fall from the sky when the e-commerce giant becomes the latest company to test drone deliveries for medications. The company said Wednesday that customers in College Station, Texas, can now get prescriptions delivered by a drone within an hour of placing their order. The drone, programed to fly from a delivery center with a secure pharmacy, will travel to the customer’s address, descend to a height of about four meters — or 13 feet — and drop a padded package. (Murphy and Hadero, 10/18)
Rite Aid is closing more than 150 stores —
The New York Times: Rite Aid Is Closing 154 Stores
The branches set to be shuttered were detailed in a filing on Tuesday in bankruptcy court in New Jersey. The store closings are meant to help Rite Aid save money on rent and improve its financial footing. Rite Aid stores in Pennsylvania, California and New York will take the brunt of the closures. About 40 locations in Pennsylvania will be shut. More closings are expected as the company works to rid itself of billions of dollars in debt. It has about 45,000 employees, including 6,100 pharmacists. (Young, 10/19)
CNBC: Rite Aid Lost More Than $1 Billion Before Bankruptcy Filing
Rite Aid lost more than $1 billion in the months before it filed for bankruptcy, the failed drugstore chain revealed in a Wednesday regulatory filing, as it warned investors it may not be able to keep its business running. The warning, which came three days after Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy protection, was contained in a late quarterly filing that showed the company racked up more losses in the 13 weeks ending Sept. 2 than it did during its entire previous fiscal year. (Fonrouge, 10/18)
In other pharmaceutical developments —
Reuters: Merck Shingles Vaccine Appeal Will Test Controversial Mass Torts Case Management Tool
The federal trial judge overseeing a four-year-old multidistrict litigation over Merck’s Zostavax shingles vaccine decided in March 2022 that it was time for plaintiffs to put up or shut up. The judge, U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle of Philadelphia, had already granted summary judgment to Merck (MRK.N) in five bellwether cases by plaintiffs who claimed that the Zostavax vaccine caused them to develop shingles instead of protecting them from the virus. Bartle ruled that the bellwether plaintiffs’ expert failed to offer scientifically reliable evidence that their illness was specifically triggered by Merck’s vaccine and not instead linked to the far more common strain of virus that lingers in the nerve cells of people who have had chicken pox. (Frankel, 10/18)
Stat: CZI To Create Biohub To Build Anti-Disease Cellular Machines
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician and philanthropist Priscilla Chan, announced on Wednesday plans to invest $250 million over 10 years to establish a new “biohub” in New York City focused on building a new class of cellular machines that can surveil the body and snuff out disease. (Mast, 10/18)
On the weight-loss drug frenzy —
Stat: Ozempic-Type Drugs Don't Always Work. Scientists Are Asking Why
Treatments like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro have been hailed for showing 15% to over 20% weight loss in trials, but those are just averages. In reality, there are big variations in how much weight people lose on the therapies, and it’s unclear what explains those differences. One way researchers are trying to figure this out is by focusing on genes. (Chen, 10/18)
Stat: Why A Market Frenzy Over New Weight Loss Drugs Defies Logic
There’s a specter haunting Wall Street. It started in biotech, where companies making drugs for the obesity-related liver disease NASH saw their valuations crash on the assumption that GLP-1 weight loss treatments would cut them out of the market. Then the Ozempic panic came for dialysis firms, whose stocks fell about 20% in a single day on the news that Novo Nordisk’s medicine had delayed the progression of kidney disease in a study enrolling people with type 2 diabetes. (Garde, 10/18)
The Washington Post: The Voice Of That Jardiance Commercial Is Standing Up To Trolls
You’ve seen the Jardiance commercial. The one where Deanna Colón sings about lowering your A1C — but she also has a lot to say about her trolls. ... “You really get how hated and despised overweight people are if you check out the comments under my Jardiance video” on YouTube, she says. (Andrews, 10/18)
