Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Best Buy To Start Selling Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor
Modern Healthcare: Best Buy To Sell Dexcom G7 System For Diabetes Care
Best Buy will begin selling the Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitoring system online, its foray into selling prescription-based medical devices. Best Buy Health, which announced the news Monday during this year's HLTH conference in Las Vegas, said it is working with virtual care platform Wheel and pharmacy partner HealthDyne to sell the device used by people with diabetes. (Hudson, 10/9)
In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —
The Boston Globe: FDA Rejects Alnylam’s Request To Expand Approval Of One Of Its Drugs To Include Heart Patients
The Food and Drug Administration refused to expand its approval of a gene-silencing medicine from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to treat a rare progressive heart disease after concluding that the benefits to patients weren’t “clinically meaningful,” the firm said Monday. Yvonne Greenstreet, Alnylam’s chief executive, told analysts in a conference call that she was “quite surprised” by the FDA decision, which was received in a letter to the Cambridge company. (Saltzman, 10/9)
Becker's Hospital Review: Mark Cuban's Pharmacy Racks Up Collaborators
Nearly two years after Mark Cuban launched a mail-order pharmacy with low-cost medications, the entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" star has secured more than a dozen collaborators. In September, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. penned a deal with Avanlee Care, which runs an app designed to help caregivers for elderly patients. The app, called Ava, will feature an option for its users to order medications from Cost Plus Drugs. Mr. Cuban's company also teamed up with two fertility health companies to reduce the burden of the pink tax, or inflated prices on women's products. (Twenter, 10/9)
The Washington Post: 23andMe’s Hacked Data On Jewish Users Offered For Sale Online
A hacker is offering to sell records identifying names, locations and ethnicities of potentially millions of customers of genetic testing company 23andMe, beginning by touting a batch that would contain data of those with Jewish ancestry. A 23andMe spokeswoman confirmed that the leak contained samples of genuine data and said the company is investigating. (Menn, 10/6)
Stat: Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago To Focus On Inflammation
At what point does inflammation, a key component of the body’s immune defense system, swerve out of control and start to drive disease? That’s the key question that a new research center, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, has been created to try to answer. The Chicago hub is the second one started by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organization of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. (Chen, 10/6)
