First Edition: May 11, 2023

KFF Health News: PBMs, The Brokers Who Control Drug Prices, Finally Get Washington’s Attention 
For two decades, patients and physicians eagerly awaited a lower-cost version of the world’s bestselling drug, Humira, while its maker, AbbVie, fought off potential competitors by building a wall of more than 250 patents around it. When the first Humira biosimilar — essentially a generic version — finally hit the market in January, it came with an unpleasant surprise. The biosimilar’s maker, Amgen, launched two versions of the drug, which treats a host of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis. They were identical in every way but this: One was priced at about $1,600 for a two-week supply, 55% off Humira’s list price. But the other was priced at around $3,300, only about 5% off. And OptumRx, one of three powerhouse brokers that determine which drugs Americans get, recommended option No. 2: the more expensive version. (Allen, 5/11)

KFF Health News: Drive-Thru Baby Showers Serve Express Needs Of Pregnant Veterans In Atlanta
When 28-year-old Navy veteran Carisma Carter pulled her car up to the front of the Atlanta VA Clinic, her seat was pushed far back from the steering wheel to make room for her big belly. Carter was 8 months pregnant. “I’m having two boys, twins. It’s my first pregnancy,” she said. Carter knows the pregnancy risks she could face as a Black woman, especially in Georgia, where data shows Black women are more than twice as likely as white women to die during or within a year after a pregnancy. (Mador, 5/11)

KFF Health News: 'An Arm and a Leg': Mental Health ‘Ghost Networks’ — And A Ghostbuster 
Many people searching for a therapist or psychiatrist turn to the list of in-network providers offered by their insurance plan. But often, many of the doctors on the list don’t take that insurance plan, aren’t accepting new patients, or simply don’t answer the phone. Researchers and journalists call this phenomenon a “ghost network.” So, who you gonna call when you encounter a ghost network? A ghostbuster. (5/11)

The New York Times: Public Health Lessons Learned From The Coronavirus Pandemic 
A lot went wrong during the coronavirus pandemic as the virus tore through a polarized nation and public health leaders, policymakers and elected officials struggled to respond. Chronic underinvestment in public health at the federal, state and local levels only made things worse. All told, more than 1.1 million people have died of Covid-19 in the United States, and more than 1,000 are still dying each week. (Stolberg and Weiland, 5/11)

The New York Times: As Covid Emergency Ends, Surveillance Shifts To The Sewers 
When the Covid-19 public health emergency expires in the United States on Thursday, the coronavirus will not disappear. But many of the data streams that have helped Americans monitor the virus will go dark. ... But experts who want to keep tabs on the virus will still have one valuable option: sewage. People who are infected with the coronavirus shed the pathogen in their stool, whether or not they take a Covid test or seek medical care, enabling officials to track levels of the virus in communities over time and to watch for the emergence of new variants. (Anthe, 5/11)

Bloomberg: Free Covid Tests Via USPS Are Available At CovidTests.Gov Until May 31
The popular offering will be available until the end of May, according to a press release this week from the Biden Administration outlining the transition of Covid measures. Since the online portal launched in January 2022, the program has distributed more than 750 million rapid antigen tests to over two-thirds of American households. (Griffin, 5/10)

Stat: What's Next For Mental Health Apps When Pandemic Flexibilities End?
In April 2020, the Food and Drug Administration announced a pandemic enforcement policy allowing mental health app developers to release certain treatment products without seeking authorization from the agency. With the end of the official public health emergency, companies that did so will now need to submit the products for FDA clearance and have them pass an early stage of review by early November — or remove the products from the market. (Aguilar, 5/11)

Politico: What Title 42's End Means For The Future Of Immigration Policy
The pandemic-era policy used to block migrants at the southern border is coming to an end this week. Lifting so-called Title 42 will mean a major policy shift, one expected to draw an increase of asylum seekers to the U.S. — and scrutiny over how the Biden administration will handle that influx. ... The government has used Title 42 to turn away asylum seekers more than 2 million times for more than three years. But it’s not actually an immigration policy. Section 265 of Title 42 of U.S. Code addresses public health, social welfare and civil rights. In March 2020, the Trump administration ordered the CDC chief to implement the Title 42 authority and turn people away at the border on public health grounds. (Ward, 5/10)

Stat: Insulin Makers, PBMs Echo Old Finger-Pointing In Senate Hearing
A Senate hearing on high insulin costs billed as a blockbuster showdown with drugmakers and middlemen turned out to be a familiar case of political theater that appeared to satisfy no one. The nation’s three biggest insulin makers, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, and the trio of middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, Express Scripts, OptumRx and CVS Health, testified Wednesday in a three-hour hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. The hearing sets up a debate by the same committee Thursday over a package of bills aimed at PBM reform. (Owermohle, 5/10)

The Washington Examiner: Pharma CEOs Play Insulin Price Blame Game During Bipartisan Senate Grilling
Only Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks agreed to one of Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders's (I-VT) numerous requests of the chief executives, pledging his company would not raise the prices of any insulin drugs currently on the market. He joined the other CEOs in declining Sanders's other pleas, such as lowering list prices on other drugs that cost less in Europe and Canada. (Jacobs, 5/10)

The New York Times: Biden Woos Republican Moderates In Debt Ceiling Standoff 
President Biden sought to drive a wedge among Republicans in their escalating dispute over spending and debt on Wednesday, effectively reaching out to moderates in hopes of convincing them to break away from Speaker Kevin McCarthy rather than risk triggering a national default that could throw the economy into a tailspin. Appearing in a competitive suburb with a vulnerable House Republican in his sights, Mr. Biden accused Mr. McCarthy of pursuing a radical strategy at the behest of the “extreme” wing of his party loyal to former President Donald J. Trump, putting the country in economic jeopardy in a way that he said reasonable Republicans of his own era in the Senate would not have done. (Baker and Fandos, 5/10)

The New York Times: How Past Debt Limit Crises Shaped Biden’s No-Negotiation Stance 
Battles in 2011 and 2013 taught President Biden not to lean on a House speaker who has little room to negotiate and to keep debt ceiling talks separate from the budget. (Rogers, 5/10)

The New York Times: What An Over-The-Counter Birth Control Pill Could Mean For You
If the F.D.A. follows the nonbinding recommendation of its advisers — and there is a chance the agency might not — Opill would become the first and only birth control pill to be available over the counter since oral contraceptives were introduced in the U.S. in 1960. A final decision is expected by early August. (Gupta, 5/10)

AP: Vermont Governor Signs 1st-In-Nation Shield Bills That Explicitly Include Medicated Abortion 
Vermont’s Republican governor signed abortion and gender affirming shield bills into law Wednesday that are the first in the country to explicitly include protecting access to a medication widely used in abortions even if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration withdraws its approval of the pill, mifepristone. The bills protect providers from discipline for providing legally protected reproductive and gender affirming health care services. (Rathke, 5/10)

AP: Nevada Advances Proposal To Enshrine Abortion Rights Into State Constitution
Nevada lawmakers on Wednesday passed a joint resolution that would codify reproductive rights — including already-existing abortion access up to 24 weeks — into the state constitution. The state Assembly approved of the measure 28 to 14 along party lines, about three weeks after the state Senate passed it 13 to 8 along party lines. State lawmakers must pass the resolution again in 2025 before it would go before voters as a ballot question in 2026. If passed, the resolution would provide the highest level of state protection for not only abortion rights, but also other reproductive access, including postpartum and prenatal care, as well as birth control. (Stern, 5/10)

AP: North Carolina Governor Makes Last-Minute Plea To Block New Abortion Limits 
North Carolina’s Democratic governor rallied residents and local doctors Wednesday in Wilmington as part of a last-minute bid to persuade at least one Republican lawmaker to sustain his expected veto of a bill banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The visit marks the second day of Gov. Roy Cooper’s cross-state campaign to urge the constituents of four GOP state legislators to demand they uphold abortion access after expressing hesitance about further restrictions during their election campaigns last year. (Schoenbaum, 5/11)

AP: Rape, Incest Exceptions To Louisiana Abortion Ban Rejected By GOP Lawmakers
Republican lawmakers in Louisiana rejected legislation Wednesday that would add exceptions in cases of rape and incest to one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. This legislative session, there is a package of bills aimed at loosening Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban by adding exceptions, clarifying “vague language” and decreasing the punishment for doctors convicted of performing illegal abortions. However, much of the proposed legislation died in a GOP-controlled committee Wednesday or was voluntarily deferred by the bills’ authors. (Cline, 5/11)

AP: South Carolina Republicans Advance New Abortion Restrictions
South Carolina Republicans are pushing new abortion restrictions in a late attempt to curtail access after a near-total ban failed last month. A Senate bill that would ban abortion except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy is moving quickly through the South Carolina House in the first sign that Republican leaders may be close to restoring limits passed in 2021 but overturned by the state Supreme Court. (Pollard, 5/10)

The Hill: McConnell Breaks With Tuberville Over Blanket Hold On Military Nominees
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Wednesday that he does not support Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) blanket hold on more than 180 non-political military promotions, which Democrats say is keeping qualified people out of key roles. “I don’t support putting a hold on military nominations, I don’t support that,” McConnell told reporters. Tuberville has held up the promotions of 184 general and flag officers for weeks to protest the Defense Department’s abortion policy of providing paid leave and travel reimbursements to service members who have to cross state lines to obtain abortions and fertility treatments. (Bolton, 5/10)

The Hill: Trump Calls Overturning Roe ‘A Great Victory,’ Dodges On Federal Abortion Ban 
Former President Trump called the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade “a great victory” but did not say whether he would support a federal ban on abortion if he’s elected again. “It was such a great victory and people are starting to understand it now,” Trump said of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down the 1973 decision protecting abortion rights, when asked at a CNN town hall on Wednesday how he would appeal to female voters in 2024. (Manchester, 5/10)

Axios: Report: "Sharp Increase" In Crimes Against Abortion Clinics Post-Roe
The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was followed by a "sharp increase" in violence directed against abortion providers and patients, according to a new report from the National Abortion Federation. (Gonzalez, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Scientists Unveil The Human Pangenome, A More Diverse Genetic Blueprint 
The pangenome, unveiled in the journal Nature, is based on the full genetic blueprints of 47 people who were sequenced between 2008 and 2015 for another study, including some of African, Asian, Caribbean, American and European ancestries. Scientists hope to expand the new tool over the next two years to incorporate 350 genetic blueprints from around the world. While the human genome is like a single road, the pangenome resembles a subway map, converging in parts of the sequence that are common to most people and branching out in areas where we differ. (Johnson, 5/10)

AP: 1st Babies Born In Britain Using DNA From 3 People
Britain’s fertility regulator on Wednesday confirmed the births of the U.K.’s first babies created using an experimental technique combining DNA from three people, an effort to prevent the children from inheriting rare genetic diseases. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said fewer than five babies have been born this way in the U.K. but did not provide further details to protect the families’ identities. The news was first reported by the Guardian newspaper. (Cheng, 5/10)

The New York Times: Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise In Small Trial 
The vaccine provoked an immune response in half of the patients treated, and those people showed no relapse of their cancer during the course of the study, a finding that outside experts described as extremely promising. The study, published in Nature, was a landmark in the yearslong movement to make cancer vaccines tailored to the tumors of individual patients. (Mueller, 5/10)

Reuters: Lingering Nerve Symptoms From Lyme Disease May Be Tied To Immune Response 
Neurologic complications of Lyme disease such as hand and feet numbness and pain that do not resolve with treatment may be due to an exaggerated immune response rather than the infection itself, a study published on Wednesday suggests. Researchers found that Lyme disease patients with persistent central nervous system problems have high blood levels of interferon alpha, an inflammatory protein produced by the immune system in response to infection. (Leo, 5/10)

NBC News: Toddlers Saw Peanut Allergies Ease After Wearing 'Peanut Patch' In Trial
A wearable patch could prevent severe allergic reactions in toddlers with peanut allergies, according to the results of a promising clinical trial. The late-stage trial, which involved more than 200 children ages 1 to 3 with peanut allergies, found that after wearing the experimental patch around 22 hours a day for a year, 67% were able to tolerate 300 to 1,000 milligrams of peanut protein — the equivalent of one to four peanuts. The findings were published Wednesday evening in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Bendix, 5/10)

The New York Times: Addiction Treatment Medicine Is Vastly Underprescribed, Especially By Race, Study Finds 
Despite the continuing rise in opioid overdose deaths, one of the most effective treatments for opioid addiction is still drastically underprescribed in the United States, especially for Black patients, according to a large new study. From 2016 through 2019, scarcely more than 20 percent of patients diagnosed with opioid use disorder filled prescriptions for buprenorphine, the medication considered the gold standard in opioid addiction treatment, despite repeated visits to health care providers, according to the study, which was published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Hoffman, 5/10)

Stat: Black Patients With Opioid Addiction Lack Equal Access To Treatment
Black people are far less likely than other Americans to receive buprenorphine, a key medication for treating opioid use disorder, according to a new study. White patients in need of addiction care were prescribed buprenorphine at more than twice the rate of Black patients in the six months preceding an addiction-related health emergency, according to the analysis. The treatment gap continued at a similar rate in the six months after an overdose, hospitalization, or admission to a rehab facility. (Facher, 5/10)

Los Angeles Times: Sheriff's Dept. To Track Presence Of Flesh-Eating Street Drug Appearing In Los Angeles
Amid troubling signs that a dangerous sedative known as “tranq” has spread even further into the local street drug supply, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has launched a pilot program to better document the drug’s presence. Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer that began appearing several years ago in illicit pills and powders on the East Coast. It’s been linked to deaths across the country and can cause human tissue to rot, leaving users with grisly wounds that sometimes lead to amputations. (Blakinger, 5/10)

NPR: Trump's 2024 Campaign Promise To Execute Drug Offenders Is A Long Shot
Former President Donald Trump spoke to New Hampshire voters during a CNN town hall held at St. Anselm College in Manchester Wednesday night. Audience members asked how he would tackle issues like abortion, Second Amendment rights, immigration and more. But nobody brought up the opioid crisis plaguing the Granite State. (Jones and Speak, 5/10)

Modern Healthcare: Envision Healthcare To File For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy: Report
Physician staffing company Envision Healthcare plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The filing could happen as early as this weekend, the newspaper reported Tuesday. Much of Nashville, Tennessee-based Envision's $7 billion in outstanding debt would be swapped for shares if the company restructures. (Hudson, 5/10)

Modern Healthcare: Babylon Health Plans To Be Taken Private
Babylon Health announced plans Wednesday to be taken private as it reported a first-quarter loss more than twice the size of a year ago. The Austin, Texas-based company said it entered into an agreement with AlbaCore Capital Group, a London-based investment manager, and its affiliates to accept $34.5 million in interim funding. In return, AlbaCore plans to take the company private, provide additional financing and create a long-term employee incentive plan, according to a Wednesday regulatory filing. (Turner, 5/10)

Reuters: Martin Shkreli-Founded Drug Company Files For Bankruptcy
Vyera Pharmaceuticals, which previously settled price-fixing charges that resulted in founder Martin Shkreli being banned from the pharmaceutical industry, filed for bankruptcy late Tuesday to sell its assets. Vyera said its bankruptcy was the result of declining profits, increased competition for generic drugs, and litigation alleging that Vyera suppressed competition for its most valuable drug, Daraprim. (Knauth, 5/10)

AP: Illinois Gov. Pritzker Signs Law That Gives Benefits To Chicago First Responders Disabled By COVID
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday signed a law providing full disability benefits to Chicago police officers and firefighters struck by COVID-19 before vaccines were available, presiding over an emotional statehouse ceremony which marked the end of a financial struggle for responders including the brother of Comptroller Susana Mendoza. The Act-of-Duty law, HB3162, ensures disability benefits of 75% of salary plus health insurance for anyone unable to work after contracting the coronavirus from March 9, 2020, when the flare-up intensified in Illinois, until June 30, 2021. The law grants them the presumption that they picked up the illness on the job. (O'Connor, 5/10)

Public Health Watch: California Regulators Drafting Emergency Rule To Combat Deadly Lung Disease
Workplace regulators in California are drafting an emergency rule to address an epidemic of silicosis — a deadly, preventable lung disease — among fabricators of artificial-stone countertops. In December, Public Health Watch, LAist and Univision revealed what’s believed to be the nation’s biggest cluster of the disease, in the Los Angeles area. The news outlets’ stories — and a petition citing them — triggered a burst of activity by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA. (Morris and Krisberg, 5/10)

AP: Massachusetts' High Court Upholds $37M Judgment For Woman Who Smoked Marlboro Lights, Got Cancer
The highest court in Massachusetts has upheld a nearly $37 million judgment for a woman who said she developed cancer after switching to Marlboro Light cigarettes because she thought they were less dangerous than the Marlboro Red cigarettes she had previously smoked. The Supreme Judicial Court’s unanimous ruling on Tuesday said that Patricia Walsh Greene might have smoked less or quit sooner had she not been swayed by Philip Morris’ claims that Marlboro Lights were safer. (5/10)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State To Grow Psychedelic Mushrooms Under First-Ever DEA License
Ohio State University is about to grow psychedelic mushrooms. For scientific research, people. Ohio State, alongside the mental health and wellness research and development company Inner State Inc., was awarded the first-ever license by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to grow whole psilocybin mushrooms. The mushrooms will be used in the study of mental health treatment capabilities with naturally grown psychedelic mushrooms. (Hendrix, 5/10)

CNN: Sleep Apnea, Lack Of Deep Sleep Linked To Damage In Brain, Study Says 
Uncontrolled sleep apnea — a disorder in which people stop breathing for 10 seconds or more at a time multiple times a night — may harm future brain health, a new study found. It’s estimated 936 million adults worldwide between the ages of 30 and 69 may suffer from sleep apnea, with many more people undiagnosed. If the sleep apnea is severe and untreated, people have three times the risk of dying from any cause. People with severe sleep apnea who spent less time in deep, also known as slow-wave sleep, had more damage to the white matter of the brain than people who had more slow-wave sleep, according to the study. (LaMotte, 5/10)

Bloomberg: Increased Chikungunya Cases Adds Urgency To Vaccine Race
When you think of mosquito-borne illnesses, chikungunya is probably not the first one that comes to mind. But it’s a virus you may soon be hearing about more often. “Longer stretches of warmer periods in the south of the Americas have enabled the mosquito to do well in places where it didn’t do well before,” said Thais dos Santos, an advisor on surveillance and control of arboviral diseases at the WHO’s Pan American Health Organization. (Peng, 5/10)

The Atlantic: Your Soap Might Be Making You More Attractive To Mosquitoes
But to focus only on a mosquito’s hankering for flesh is to leave a whole chapter of the pests’ scent-seeking saga “largely overlooked,” Clément Vinauger, a chemical ecologist at Virginia Tech, told me. Mosquitoes are omnivores, tuned to sniff out blood and plants. And nowadays, most humans, especially those in the Western world, tend to smell a bit like both, thanks to all the floral, citrusy lotions and potions that so many of us slather atop our musky flesh. (Wu, 5/10)