Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Get New Weapon To Battle UTIs
The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves Antibiotic for Increasingly Hard-to-Treat Urinary Tract Infections
It is the first time in two decades that the F.D.A. has approved a new antibiotic for U.T.I.s, which annually affect 30 million Americans. U.T.I.s are responsible for the single-greatest use of antibiotics outside a hospital setting. (Jacobs, 4/24)
AARP: Antipsychotics Pose New Risks for People With Dementia
The use of antipsychotic medications for people with dementia has gone up in recent years, even amid warnings. A new study suggests that these drugs — developed for conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, but sometimes prescribed for dementia — pose more risks to people with dementia than previously known. In people ages 50 and older with dementia, taking antipsychotics more than doubled the risk of pneumonia, the most common cause of death in people with dementia. And along with the known threat of stroke, the drugs increased the risk of acute kidney injury, blood clots, bone fracture, heart attack and heart failure. (Szabo, 4/24)
Roll Call: Decades Of Dallying Led To Current Delay On Menthol Ban
The Biden administration’s delay in finalizing a ban on menthol cigarettes is the result of decades of resistance, delays and industry lobbying, according to former officials and public health advocates. (Clason, 4/24)
The Wall Street Journal: At Moderna, OpenAI’s GPTs Are Changing Almost Everything
Moderna is expected to announce a partnership Wednesday with artificial-intelligence heavyweight OpenAI, a deal that aims to automate nearly every business process at the biotechnology company and boost the ChatGPT maker’s reach into the enterprise. As part of the transaction, some 3,000 Moderna employees will have access to ChatGPT Enterprise, built on OpenAI’s most advanced language model, GPT-4, by the end of this week. Further integration of AI into more of its processes could help Moderna outpace its plan to roll out 15 new products within the next five years, the Cambridge, Mass., company said. (Bousquette, 4/24)
Stat: Colombia Issues Compulsory License For HIV Medication
After months of deliberation, the Colombian government has issued a compulsory license for an HIV medicine, the first time the country has taken such a step, one that also marks a significant move in the increasingly global battle over access to medicines. (Silverman, 4/24)
On gene research —
CNBC: Walgreens Launches Cell, Gene Therapies In Service Expansion
Walgreens on Thursday said it will start to work directly with drugmakers to bring cell and gene therapies to U.S. patients as part of a broader expansion of its specialty pharmacy services. (Constantino, 4/25)
Stat: U.K. Hospital Tries To Bypass Drugmakers, Develop Its Own Gene Therapy
Claire Booth, a gene therapy researcher in London, had hoped that a biotech company would take her team’s work on an experimental medication for an ultra-rare children’s disease and get it to market. It didn’t happen. Now, in an unusual step, the hospital where she works is trying to get the medicine approved on its own. (Joseph, 4/25)
KFF Health News: Genetics Studies Have A Diversity Problem That Researchers Struggle To Fix
When he recently walked into the dental clinic at the Medical University of South Carolina donning a bright-blue pullover with “In Our DNA SC” embroidered prominently on the front, Lee Moultrie said, two Black women stopped him to ask questions. “It’s a walking billboard,” said Moultrie, a health care advocate who serves on the community advisory board for In Our DNA SC, a study underway at the university that aims to enroll 100,000 South Carolinians ... in genetics research. (Sausser, 4/25)
