Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Redacts Names Of Drugs From Reports On Contaminated Factories
ProPublica: The FDA Is Hiding The Names Of Drugs Made In Contaminated Factories
They were the sort of disturbing discoveries that anyone taking generic medication would want to know. At one Indian factory manufacturing drugs for the United States, pigeons infested a storage room and defecated on boxes of sterilized equipment. At another, pathogens contaminated purified water used to produce drugs. At a third, stagnant urine pooled on a bathroom floor not far from where injectable medication was made. (Cenziper and Rose, 10/23)
More pharma and tech news —
Stat: CVS Caremark Tells AIDS Activists Gilead Needs To Lower The Price Of Its New HIV Drug To Get On Formularies
For the past few months, CVS Caremark has resisted adding a new Gilead Sciences HIV prevention drug to its formularies, repeatedly explaining there are “clinical, financial, and regulatory considerations” that must be reviewed before it will take that step. Not surprisingly, though, what the largest pharmacy benefits manager in the U.S. simply wants is a much lower price, according to an email sent this week by a company executive to an AIDS patient advocacy group. (Silverman, 10/22)
Axios: Anti-Obesity Drug Prescribing Shows Signs Of Leveling Off
The anti-obesity drug boom may be cooling, as overall prescribing of GLP-1 medicines remained relatively flat for the three months ending in September, according to a new analysis of electronic health records. (Bettelheim, 10/23)
NPR: Antidepressant Side Effects Vary Depending On The Drug
Doctors have long known that antidepressants come with side effects for cardiovascular and metabolic health. But a major analysis from a team of researchers in the U.K. has, for the first time, pulled together data from more than 150 clinical trials to compare the physical side effects of dozens of antidepressants. (Stone, 10/23)
Stat: European Cancer Researchers Release Guidelines On AI Use In Oncology
The leading professional organization for European oncologists has rolled out its first set of guidance on how its members should use large language models, a type of artificial intelligence, in cancer medicine. (MacPhail and Trang, 10/22)
