First Edition: February 27, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Pharma Execs Dig In For A Fight Against Outraged Senators
Outlining the problem, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the committee’s top Democrat, said that last fall 10 companies accounted for half of all profits in the health care sector, nine of them drugmakers. He pointed out that all but one of the drugmakers represented Tuesday were among the top 10 profit-makers. “Your profits are outsized compared to others in the industry, you get a massive portion of your revenue from American taxpayers, and you bear none of the consequences of high drug prices,” Wyden said. (Huetteman and Hancock, 2/26)

Kaiser Health News: Biologist Faces $48,512 Bill For Rabies Shot After Cat Bite
Compassion for a hungry stray cat led to a nip on the finger — and also took a bite out of Jeannette Parker’s wallet. In a rural area just outside Florida’s Everglades National Park, Parker spotted the kitten wandering along the road. It looked skinny and sick, and when Parker, a wildlife biologist, offered up some tuna she had in her car, the cat bit her finger. “It broke my skin with his teeth,” she recalls. (Appleby, 2/27)

Kaiser Health News: Cancer’s Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls
Carol Marley wants everyone to know what a life-threatening cancer diagnosis looks like in America today. Yes, it’s the chemotherapy that leaves you weak and unable to walk across the room. Yes, it’s the litany of tests and treatments — the CT scans and MRIs and biopsies and endoscopies and surgeries and blood draws and radiation and doctor visits. Yes, it’s envisioning your funeral that torments you day and night. But none of these is her most gnawing, ever-present concern. (Gorman, 2/27)

California Healthline: Dental Clinic Screens For Depression, Other Mental Health Issues During Dentist Visits
Dr. Huong Le spends an average of 45 minutes with each of her dental patients during their visits, so she gets to know them well, especially the older ones who come in more than twice a year. She hears about their families, stories from their home countries and, often, how lonely they feel. More than once, Le and her staff at Asian Health Services have heard their patients express suicidal thoughts. (Ibarra, 2/26)

The Associated Press: Senators Draw On Own Experiences To Chastise Drug Companies
Channeling the ire of constituents and drawing from personal experience, senators chastised drug company executives Tuesday over the high cost of prescription medications, while the CEOs warned that government price controls could stifle breakthroughs on diseases like Alzheimer's. The Senate Finance Committee hearing marked the first time lawmakers have called the industry's top executives to account for rising prices, which are a drain on Medicare and Medicaid and a burden to millions of Americans. The extraordinary public accounting was a sign that Congress and the White House are moving toward legislation this year to curb costs. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Perrone, 2/26)

Reuters: U.S. Senators Tell Drug Company Executives Pricing Is 'Morally Repugnant'
Senators took aim in particular at Abbvie Inc Chief Executive Richard Gonzalez and his company's rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira - the world's top-selling prescription medicine. Executives from AstraZeneca PLC, Sanofi SA, Pfizer Inc, Merck & Co, Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co also answered questions from members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. The executives pointed to their companies' records of developing lifesaving medications, saying profits generated in the lucrative U.S. market help them fund expensive research and development of future treatments. (Abutaleb and Erman, 2/26)

The New York Times: Drug Makers Try To Justify Prescription Prices To Senators At Hearing
Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, the home to many drug and biotechnology companies, offered what he described as “a friendly warning” to the witnesses. “If you don’t take meaningful action to reduce prescription drug prices,” he said, “policymakers are going to do it for you.” (Pear, 2/26)

Politico: Friction Between Drugmakers, GOP Intensifies At Hearing On Pharma Pricing
The roughly four-hour Senate Finance Committee hearing didn't yield many fiery confrontations, and Finance Chairman Chuck Grassleyindicated he will go slow pursuing pricing legislation. But the companies took hits from Republican lawmakers like Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who accused AbbVie of abusing the patent system by obtaining 247 patents to protect its multibillion-dollar arthritis drug Humira from competition for more than 30 years. (Karlin-Smith, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Drug Executives Grilled In Senate Over High Prices
The CEOs from Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi and others were subjected to a ritualistic grilling. But the executives survived the three hours of questioning largely unscathed by deflecting blame for their list prices to insurance companies, despite an admonishment from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) that he would not stand for finger-pointing. The industry leaders they are forced to set prices higher so they can pay big rebates to insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). They acknowledged that practice especially hurts consumers without insurance, who pay full list price at the pharmacy, as well as those with coverage whose co-payment is a percentage of the list price. They insisted they are not to blame for the pain. (Rowland, 2/26)

The Hill: Senators Grill Drug Execs Over High Prices
“If you bring a drug to the market with a low list price in this system, you get punished financially and you get no uptake because everyone in the supply chain makes money as a result of a higher list price,” Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier told senators. “The system itself is complex and interdependent and no one company can unilaterally lower list prices without running into financial and operating disadvantages that make it impossible to do that.” (Hellmann, 2/26)

NPR: High Drug Prices Debated At Senate Hearing
They each acknowledged briefly that they have some role to play in helping lower drug prices. But they defended their industry by touting their multibillion-dollar investments in research and development and praising advances in treatments for cancer, hepatitis C, schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases. "Last year, Janssen invested $8.4 billion globally in research and development, making Janssen one of the top research and development investors in any industry anywhere in the world," said Jennifer Taubert, worldwide chairman of pharmaceuticals for Johnson & Johnson, which owns Janssen. (Kodjak, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Analysis: CEOs From Pfizer, Merck, AbbVie And Others Face Senate On Drug Prices
Pharmaceutical executives wrapped up their appearances at the Senate drug-price hearing Tuesday by saying it would be difficult for them to cut U.S. list prices in the absence of new legislation and policy changes. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) told the executives at the end of the nearly 3 1/2-hour hearing: “If you lowered list prices it would help.” Earlier, he said list prices matter, because some patients pay either full price or a percentage that is based on the list price, rather than on net prices after rebates that manufacturers pay to middlemen. (2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Senators Press Drug-Company Executives Over Prices
The hearing marked a milestone in Washington’s scrutiny of drug costs, with the appearance of so many powerful industry executives in itself an acknowledgment of the prospect of change. Lawmakers are gearing up for the 2020 campaign, in which health care is poised to be a central issue. “It certainly seems like it’s a new day for drug companies in Congress. How the industry handles these hearings and investigations is likely to have enormous effect on their businesses moving forward,” said Christopher Armstrong, an attorney at Holland & Knight and former general counsel and chief oversight counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, which held the hearing. (Loftus, Hopkins and Walker, 2/26)

Stat: Who Shined And Who Sank: How 7 Executives Fared In Defending Pharma
Pharmaceutical executives walked into a Senate hearing on Tuesday expecting a public flogging. When it was over, they were dubbed by one Republican senator “the magnificent seven.” In other words, for phama executives, it turned out to be a pretty good day. Merck’s Ken Frazier shined, as many expected. AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Giovanni Caforio both showed how much they’ve grown into their roles as CEOs. Sanofi’s Olivier Brandicourt managed to avoid being savaged over questions about high insulin prices. (Herper and Florko, 2/26)

Reuters: U.S. House Democrats Introduce Sweeping 'Medicare For All' Bill
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled an ambitious proposal on Tuesday to move all Americans into the government's Medicare health insurance program, tapping into public frustration over the rising cost of healthcare that has become a key issue for the party as it seeks to gain control of Congress and the White House in 2020. The bill, unveiled by Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal from Washington state, would transition the U.S. healthcare system to a single-payer "Medicare for All" program funded by the government in two years. (Abutaleb, 2/26)

The Washington Post: More Than 100 House Democrats To Unveil ‘Battle-Ready’ Medicare-For-All Plan As 2020 Election Looms
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is expected to release legislation Wednesday that incorporates key policy demands of single-payer activists, aiming to overhaul the U.S. health-care system even faster and more dramatically than legislation proposed in 2017 by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Jayapal’s Medicare-for-all would move every American onto one government insurer in two years, while providing everyone with medical, vision, dental and long-term care at no cost. Similar proposals have been projected to increase federal expenditures by at least $30 trillion but virtually eradicate individuals’ health spending by eliminating payments such as premiums and deductibles. (Stein, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: House Democrats Reveal Plan For Medicare For All
It would expand the Medicare program for seniors to younger Americans, replacing Medicaid for the low income and disabled and most employer-sponsored coverage. Employers and private insurers would be barred from providing benefits or selling coverage that duplicates benefits, but they could provide supplemental coverage. Benefits would include primary care, outpatient services, prescription drugs, dental care, substance-abuse and mental-health treatment, full reproductive services, as well as long-term care and services. The transition to the new system would take place over about two years. Existing medical benefits or services under the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service would continue. (Armour and Peterson, 2/26)

The Hill: Progressive Democrats Unveil Medicare For All Plan In House 
The 2020 presidential candidates have taken a variety of stances on what “Medicare for all” means, with some favoring more incremental steps like allowing people 55 and over to buy into Medicare. Jayapal emphasized Tuesday that Medicare for all means a full-scale, government-run health insurance system for everyone. “This medicare for all bill really makes it clear what we mean by Medicare for all,” Jayapal said. “We mean a system where there are no private insurance companies that provide these core comprehensive benefits.” (Sullivan, 2/26)

The Hill: Push For ‘Medicare For All’ Worries Centrist Dems 
Centrist Democrats who helped their party win back the House majority with victories in key swing districts last fall are sounding the alarm that the liberal push for “Medicare for all” could haunt them as they try to defend their seats and keep control of the House. Instead, these moderates — many of whom will face tough reelection bids in 2020 — are pressing their party leaders to work with President Trump and Republicans to deliver to voters back home a bipartisan victory on lowering prescription drug prices and other health efforts rather than focus on an aspirational Medicare for all messaging bill. (Wong, 2/27)

The New York Times: What Would ‘Medicare For All’ Do To Medicare?
The basic idea of “Medicare for all” is that all Americans should get access to the popular, government-run program. But a new bill toward this goal, the first introduced in the current Congress, would also drastically reshape Medicare itself. The bill, from Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington and more than 100 Democratic House co-sponsors, would greatly expand Medicare and eliminate the current structure of premiums, co-payments and deductibles. (Sanger-Katz, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Democrats Grill Trump Officials Over Family Separations And Threaten Wider Legal Probe
At separate hearings on Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers hammered the Trump administration Tuesday over the “zero tolerance” prosecution policy that split thousands of migrant children from their parents last year and devolved into a political fiasco for the White House. Several Trump officials acknowledged to the House Judiciary Committee that they did not speak up to supervisors or attempt to stop the implementation of the family separations at the border, despite warnings it probably would traumatize children. Facing aggressive and sometimes angry questions from Democrats, the officials who formulated and carried out the separation system recognized communication failures among their agencies, but defended their actions as an attempt to uphold immigration laws. (Miroff, Sacchetti and Sonmez, 2/26)

The Hill: Former Trump Refugee Director Did Not Notify Superiors About Family Separation Warnings
The controversial former head of the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement told a House panel Tuesday that he did not pass along warnings about the psychological impact of separating children from their families. Under questioning from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, Scott Lloyd said he did not tell his superiors that separating children from families could have lasting health consequences. (Weixel, 2/26)

The Associated Press: At Least 4,500 Abuse Complaints At Migrant Children Shelters
Thousands of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment of migrant children in government-funded shelters were made over the past four years, including scores directed against adult staff members, according to federal data released Tuesday. The cases include allegations of inappropriate touching, staff members allegedly watching minors while they bathed and showing pornographic videos to minors. Some of the allegations included inappropriate conduct by minors in shelters against other minors, as well as by staff members. (Long, 2/26)

The Hill: Thousands Of Migrant Children Allegedly Sexually Assaulted While In US Custody 
The allegations include rumors of sexual relationships between staff and minors and reports of staff forcibly touching the genitals of minors, as well as inappropriate touching between staff and minors. Deutch said the agency provided the documents in response to a request for information from the House Judiciary Committee. During a committee hearing Tuesday about the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of separating families at the border, Deutch questioned agency officials about the findings. (Weixel, 2/26)

The Associated Press: House Targets Family Separations In First Trump Subpoena
A House committee voted Tuesday to subpoena Trump administration officials over family separations at the southern border, the first issued in the new Congress as Democrats have promised to hold the administration aggressively to count. The decision by the Oversight Committee will compel the heads of Justice, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to deliver documents to lawmakers. The committee’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, has pledged to press the administration for documents and testimony on a wide swath of issues, but family separation was among his first priorities. (Long, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: House Democrats Press For Data On Immigrant Children Separated From Parents
Democrats on the committee said they have requested information for seven months from the agencies, including a request earlier this month. While the agencies have sent some documents, the Democrats said, the administration hasn’t fulfilled the requests of the committee, which is asking for specific information about each child separated from a parent or guardian at the border. “I did not make this decision lightly,” said committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) at Tuesday’s meeting.  “When our own government rips vulnerable children, toddlers, and even infants from the arms of their mothers and fathers with no plan to reunite them, that is government-sponsored child abuse.” (Andrews and Radnofsky, 2/26)

The Hill: House Democrats Will Subpoena Trump Administration Over Family Separations 
Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the committee’s top Republican, said he didn’t think subpoenas should be necessary, because the agencies are cooperating. Jordan said the committee has been given hundreds of pages of documents in response to previous requests, and the administration should be granted more time. HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said the agency "has communicated regularly and in good faith" with Oversight Committee members, and has provided 792 pages of documents related to the Committee’s request. Oakley said HHS has also offered committee staff a review of the Office of Refugee Resettlement portal, which is used to help track the children in HHS custody. (Weixel, 2/26)

The New York Times: Democrats Issue Subpoenas On Trump’s Migrant Family Separations
The Trump policy of prosecuting all adults crossing the border led to the practice of separating families and caring for the children in licensed facilities while trying to place them with a relative, because a previous court settlement had restricted the detention of children. The Department of Homeland Security struggled to track families and their children after the policy was put in place last spring — and did not create a comprehensive family reunification policy until a federal judge intervened. Mr. Trump eventually relented on the family separations, and a federal judge in California halted them in June. But in January, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services reported that thousands more families might have been separated than previously reported. (Thrush, 2/26)

The Associated Press: California Officials: Immigration Facilities Lack Oversight
Detainees confined to federal immigration detention facilities located in California have inadequate access to health care, lawyers and family, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Tuesday. Becerra was discussing the findings of a 147-page report prepared by his office that also found that detainees face long periods of confinement without breaks and language barriers in the 10 detention facilities state authorities inspected in 2017. (Elias, 2/26)

The New York Times: A Guide To The House’s First Major Gun Control Vote In Years
The House this week is set to pass the first major gun control legislation in over two decades, with Democratic lawmakers expected to approve two measures strengthening background checks for all firearms sales. The last time the House put high-profile legislation expanding gun control laws to a vote was in 1994, when it passed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban and made it illegal to manufacture a number of semiautomatic weapons for civilian use. That legislation expired after a decade and was not renewed by a Republican-controlled Congress. (Edmondson, 2/27)

Politico: Arizona Republican Proposes Using TSA Precheck For Buying Guns
An Arizona Republican has offered a proposal to allow millions of people cleared by the Transportation Security Administration’s Precheck program — designed to make getting through airports easier — to buy a gun without additional investigation. Rep. Debbie Lesko offered the TSA Precheck amendment during the debate over the House Democratic-sponsored bill requiring background checks for all gun sales, including private transactions. Her amendment is set to be voted on on Wednesday. (Bresnahan, 2/26)

USA Today: Exclusive: Report Shows $8M Spent On More Than 1,500 Transgender Troops
The Pentagon has spent nearly $8 million to treat more than 1,500 transgender troops since 2016, including 161 surgical procedures, according to data obtained by USA TODAY. As of Feb. 1, 1,071 service members have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Public Health Service on active duty and in the reserve force. Most of them are senior enlisted personnel, but there are 20 senior officers – majors and lieutenant commanders and higher – as well. (Brook, 2/27)

The Associated Press: Decorated Transgender Troops To Testify Before Congress
Lindsey Muller served in the Army as a man for nearly a decade before telling her commanders in 2014 that she identified as a woman and would resign because military policy barred transgender personnel. Her superiors, citing her outstanding performance, urged the decorated attack helicopter pilot to stay so she did. After then-President Barack Obama changed the policy, she started dressing in uniform as a woman. Muller went on to be recommended for a promotion as the surgery to complete her gender transition was scheduled, but the operation was postponed in 2017 when President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he was reinstituting the ban. (2/27)

The New York Times: ‘Executing Babies’: Here Are The Facts Behind Trump’s Misleading Abortion Tweet
The latest battle in the nation’s continuing war over abortion involves a federal bill called the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Senate Democrats this week blocked the bill from reaching a vote, and President Trump responded with an angry tweet. (Grady, 2/26)

The Associated Press: Missouri House Moves To Further Restrict Abortion
Missouri's Republican-led House on Tuesday advanced a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. And if the high court doesn't switch course, the Missouri bill would ban most abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. That can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. (2/26)

The Associated Press: Abortion: Tennessee Lawmakers Advance Fetal Heartbeat Bill
A bill that would ban most Tennessee women from obtaining abortions once a fetus’ heartbeat is detected cleared a key hurdle Tuesday, advancing for a full House vote in the GOP-dominated Legislature. The move comes amid a national movement from anti-abortion legislators and activists who hope that President Donald Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court will increase their chances of undermining abortion rights. (Kruesi, 2/26)

The Associated Press: House OKs Bill To Ban Abortions Based On Gender, Disability
Abortion opponents in Kentucky notched a new legislative victory Tuesday when the state House passed a bill that would ban the procedure for women seeking to end their pregnancies because of the gender, race or disability of the fetus. The measure cleared the chamber on a 67-25 vote that sends it to the Senate. It's part of an aggressive agenda by the Republican-dominated legislatures in Kentucky and several other states to restrict abortion. (2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Plans Multifaceted Response To Opioid-Abuse Epidemic
The Food and Drug Administration plans new steps to combat the abuse of opioid painkillers, ranging from new dosage forms to small-quantity packaging and new research requirements on drugmakers. The new FDA measures are a further effort to stem the opioid-addiction crisis that has led to an estimated 47,000 opioid-painkiller overdose deaths in 2017 alone. The agency plans for the first time to require makers of opioid pain pills to conduct long-term studies of their drugs’ long-term effectiveness. The FDA has long mandated studies about safety, but the testing for possible long-term loss of effectiveness is a new authority for the agency in a law passed by Congress last fall. (Burton, 2/26)

Reuters: U.S. EPA Denies Being Soft On Polluters As Democrats Question Enforcement
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement chief on Tuesday pushed back on "the myth" that the regulator is soft on polluters as Democratic lawmakers pressed her on the big decline in civil penalties and site inspections last year. (2/26)

The Associated Press: EPA Defends Enforcement Record, Despite Drop In Penalties
Assistant administrator Susan Bodine, who heads the office of enforcement, said the idea that EPA is soft on enforcement is "absolutely not true," adding that the agency is giving states a greater role in regulation and enforcement and stressing education and voluntary compliance by companies. (2/26)

The Associated Press: US Keeps Air Pollution Standard Established Under Obama
U.S. environmental regulators on Tuesday announced they are leaving intact an air quality standard for power plant pollution that can worsen asthma in children, despite calls by health advocates for a tougher rule. The move keeps in place a threshold for sulfur dioxide pollution established in 2010 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama. Sulfur dioxide comes from burning coal to produce electricity and from other industrial sources. (2/26)

ProPublica/Houston Chronicle: Numerous Mistakes Led to Fatal Blood Transfusion at St. Luke’s in Houston, Report Finds
Six days after Thanksgiving last year, a 73-year-old woman showed up at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston. Her body was retaining too much fluid after a dialysis treatment, and she was in need of emergency medical care. What happened next could have killed her. Hospital staff put in a request to give the woman a blood transfusion, but the order was meant for another patient with a different blood type. Fortunately, the St. Luke’s laboratory caught the error, sparing the woman from harm. (Hixenbaugh and Ornstein, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Bayer Faces Mounting Weedkiller Lawsuits Amid Sweeping Restructuring
Bayer AG on Wednesday said the number of plaintiffs suing the German company over its weedkillers had risen by another 1,900 over the last three months. The legal battle has cast a cloud over the chemicals and pharmaceuticals group’s prospects that analysts say could take months, if not years to dissipate. Bayer said as of late January it faced a total of 11,200 plaintiffs claiming weedkillers containing the chemical glyphosate cause cancer, compared with 9,300 at the end of October. (Bender, 2/27)

The New York Times: When The Bully Is The Boss
Senator Amy Klobuchar’s nascent campaign is fending off a stream of stories from former staffers that she was a volatile, highhanded boss who often demeaned and humiliated people who worked for her. She has one of the highest rates of turnover in the Senate. “Am I a tough boss sometimes? Yes,” she said in a recent CNN forum. “Have I pushed people too hard? Yes.” The presumption that tough bosses get results — and fast — compared with gentler leaders is widespread, and rooted partly in the published life stories of successful C.E.O.s. Bobby Knight, the Indiana University basketball coach and author of “The Power of Negative Thinking,” was notoriously harsh, and enormously successful. So was Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. (Carey, 2/26)

Stat: A Science Conference Invited Only Women On Stage. Then Came A Backlash
The decision to invite only female speakers to the microbiome conference at the University of California, San Diego, this week was meant to make a statement about how scientific meetings ought to be organized. Instead, the move has ignited a minor controversy, thrusting a gathering about a technical scientific subject into the culture wars. The inaugural International Microbiome Meeting, put on by UCSD’s Center for Microbiome Innovation, is expected to have 27 microbiome experts — all women — take the stage as presenters over two days this week. (Robbins, 2/27)

NPR: 'Overlapping' Surgeries Safe For Most Patients, But Not All
Surgeons are known for their busy schedules — so busy that they don't just book surgeries back to back. Sometimes they'll double-book, so one operation overlaps the next. A lead surgeon will perform the key elements, then move to the next room — leaving other, often junior, surgeons to finish up the first procedure. A large study published Tuesday in JAMA suggests that this practice of overlapping surgeries is safe for most patients, with those undergoing overlapping surgeries faring the same as those who are the sole object of their surgeon's attention. (Ellis, 2/26)

The Associated Press: China Drafts Rules On Biotech After Gene-Editing Scandal
China has unveiled draft regulations on gene editing and other potentially risky biomedical technologies after a Chinese scientist's claim of helping to create gene-edited babies roiled the global science community. Under the proposed measures released Tuesday, technology involving gene editing, gene transfer and gene regulation would be categorized as "high-risk" and managed by the health department of the State Council, China's Cabinet. (2/26)

Stat: Bispecific Antibodies Are Next New Thing In Cancer Immunotherapy 
In cancer immunotherapy these days, technology is advancing so fast that 2017’s buzzy new treatment may soon be passe: Only 18 months after approval of the first CAR-T, pharmaceutical companies and biotechs are already talking about next-generation cancer therapy. Called bispecific antibodies, they’re being developed by some two dozen companies large and small, with a version cleverly branded as BiTEs already constituting 60 percent of Amgen’s oncology pipeline. The appeal: Bispecifics make the immune system kill tumor cells like first-gen immunotherapy, but, unlike the weeks it takes to laboriously manufacture CAR-Ts, they can start being infused almost as quickly as an oncologist can write a prescription. (Begley, 2/27)

The New York Times: The Best Type Of Exercise To Burn Fat
A few minutes of brief, intense exercise may be as effective as much lengthier walks or other moderate workouts for incinerating body fat, according to a helpful new review of the effects of exercise on fat loss. The review finds that super-short intervals could even, in some cases, burn more fat than a long walk or jog, but the effort involved needs to be arduous. I have written many times about the health, fitness and brevity benefits of high-intensity interval training, which typically involves a few minutes — or even seconds — of strenuous exertion followed by a period of rest, with the sequence repeated multiple times. (Reynolds, 2/27)

The New York Times: Selma Blair Discusses Multiple Sclerosis, And Many Hear Their Own Story
The actress Selma Blair appeared at the Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday evening wearing a diaphanous Ralph & Russo gown and carrying a custom-made cane covered in black patent leather. It was her first public event since she announced in October her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, a chronic and often disabling disease affecting the central nervous system. (Fortin, 2/26)

Los Angeles Times: Selma Blair Opens Up About Multiple Sclerosis In Poignant New Interview
Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system that sparks the immune system to attack the protective myelin sheath covering the nerves. The resultant damage disrupts the body’s ability to communicate with itself. Throughout the interview, Blair’s voice shook due to spasmodic dysphonia, a symptom of the chronic disease caused by involuntary muscle movements of the voice box. "It is interesting to put it out there, to be here, to say, 'This is what my particular case looks like right now,'" she said. (Lee, 2/26)

The New York Times: Britain, Trying To Boost Organ Donations, To Make Most Adults Presumed Donors
The story of Keira Ball, a sprightly 9 year old, did not end in the summer of 2017, when she was fatally injured in a car accident in England. Her parents consented to donating her organs, saving the life of Max Johnson, also 9, whose heart was failing because of an infection. Pictures of these two children, who never met in life, have been on newspaper front pages and news broadcasts in Britain this week, the most highly publicized of the cases that have helped win passage of what has been called Max and Keira’s law. It is intended to boost Britain’s low rate of organ donations by making most adults presumed organ donors by 2020. (Karasz, 2/26)