Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Antibiotic Resistance Is Becoming A Big Threat; Some Cancer Drugs Show Promise In Treating Lyme Disease
USA Today: Antibiotics Can (And Will) Stop Working. Is Modern Medicine Ready?
In some ways, Melanie Lawrence is living a future that awaits us all. She's resistant to nearly every antibiotic and allergic or intolerant to the rest. Now when she gets an infection, which she does every few months, she has to hope her immune system can fight it without much help from modern medicine. Despite more than a century of antibiotic research and development, the world is quickly running out of these lifesaving drugs. (Weintraub and Rodriguez, 7/23)
The Boston Globe: Can You Cure Lyme Disease? A Cancer Drug May Provide Treatment
A type of drug used to treat some cancers could be effective in halting the symptoms of tick-borne Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that affects nearly half a million Americans each year, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. (Fox, 7/28)
Stat: Gene Therapy Is In Crisis. Its Top Minds Searched For A Solution
Jennifer Puck has successfully treated 10 children with a gene therapy for a fatal disorder that decimates their immune system. But she has no idea how to get her drug approved and frankly is running out of ideas. “I wish I had a clue about where to go from here,” said Puck, an immunologist at University of California, San Francisco, from a plush chair above Union Station. The problem is simple: Size. Puck’s therapy is for a disease, Artemis-SCID, that affects just two to three new U.S. patients every year — far too few for a company to generate a profit, or to even run the kind of studies regulators usually demand before approving drugs. (Mast, 7/31)
Stat: What AstraZeneca-Pfizer Deal Means For Early-Stage Gene Therapy
AstraZeneca said Friday it will buy up a group of early-stage gene therapies from Pfizer, bucking a trend of drugmakers axing programs and exiting a field that had once captured the imagination — and checkbooks — of many pharmaceutical executives. AstraZeneca will pay Pfizer up to $1 billion plus royalties for the portfolio of treatments, none of which has entered clinical trials yet. The companies did not say how much it is paying upfront. (Mast, 7/28)
AP: Biogen To Bulk Up Rare Disease Treatments With $7 Billion Reata Acquisition
Biogen is spending more than $7 billion to buy Reata Pharmaceuticals and bolster its rare disease treatments. The Alzheimer’s treatment developer said Friday it will pay $172.50 in cash for each share of Reata in a deal it expects to close by the end of this year. (Murphy, 7/28)
CIDRAP: Antibiotic Stewardship Efforts May Miss Not-In-Person Prescriptions
Focusing ambulatory antibiotic stewardship interventions on in-person visits only may miss a substantial proportion of inappropriate prescribing, according to a study published yesterday in PLOS One. The study authors say the findings, which are based on ambulatory antibiotic prescribing data collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, could take on greater significance with more outpatient healthcare visits now being conducted virtually. (Dall, 7/28)
Reuters: AstraZeneca CEO Says Lung Cancer Drug Trial Data 'Very Encouraging'
AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said on Friday the company is "very encouraged" by interim data from a key lung cancer drug trial, but he did not explain why the company had not declared results as "clinically meaningful". (Fick and Mason, 7/28)
Stat: Biogen To Acquire Reata Pharmaceuticals In $7 Billion Deal
Biogen on Friday said it would acquire Reata Pharmaceuticals, the maker of an approved therapy for a rare neurological condition, in a deal worth $7.3 billion. The transaction price of $172.50 per share is a nearly 60% premium from Reata’s share price at Thursday’s close. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. (Joseph and Feuerstein, 7/28)
Stat: Sage Hopes For A Blockbuster In Antidepressant Now Before FDA
Cheryl Meier had watched clinical trial enrollment announcements for years — but always for her sons’ type 1 diabetes, never for herself. Her OB-GYN had put her on Effexor for her depression 20 years ago, and it worked well enough — she could sleep for the first time in her life, and she no longer cried at every little thing. But it never worked for her dark thoughts. But then she retired, and then she had time, and then she saw an email — “I guess once your name gets on a list, it’s there,” she said — for an experimental depression drug called zuranolone. (Trang, 7/31)
