First Edition: October 3, 2018

Kaiser Health News: VA Adding Opioid Antidote To Defibrillator Cabinets For Quicker Overdose Response 
It took more than 10 minutes for paramedics to arrive after a housekeeper found a man collapsed on the floor of a bathroom in a Boston Veteran Affairs building. The paramedics immediately administered naloxone, often known by its brand name Narcan, to successfully reverse the man’s opioid overdose. But it takes only a few minutes without oxygen for brain damage to begin. (Bebinger, 10/3)

The Hill: Vulnerable House Republican Unveils Resolution On Pre-Existing Conditions
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) on Tuesday introduced a resolution intended to protect people with pre-existing conditions, illustrating the lengths vulnerable Republicans are going to try to show they favor those protections. The resolution from Sessions, who is facing a close reelection race against Democrat Colin Allred, is nonbinding, but expresses the opinion of the House that pre-existing conditions should be protected. (Sullivan, 10/2)

The Washington Post: Maryland Dems: Trump Health Care Curbs Could Affect 260,000
As many as 260,000 Maryland residents could see higher premiums or lose their health care coverage altogether because of pre-existing medical conditions, age or gender under a new Trump administration legal strategy, state Democrats warned on Tuesday. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Baltimore, along with other Democratic members of the Maryland congressional delegation and state Attorney General Brian Frosh attacked the Trump administration for refusing to protect Americans guaranteed the right to health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. (Goldstein, 10/2)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Seizes Documents From Juul Headquarters
The Food and Drug Administration conducted a surprise inspection of the headquarters of the e-cigarette maker Juul Labs last Friday, carting away more than a thousand documents it said were related to the company’s sales and marketing practices. The move, announced on Tuesday, was seen as an attempt to ratchet up pressure on the company, which controls 72 percent of the e-cigarette market in the United States and whose products have become popular in high schools. The F.D.A. said it was particularly interested in whether Juul deliberately targeted minors as consumers. (Hoffman, 10/2)

Reuters: FDA Seizes Documents From Juul In Latest E-Cigarette Crackdown
The inspection, completed on Friday, followed a request in April for documents that would help the agency better understand the high rates of use and appeal among youth of Juul products. The FDA also said it conducted inspections of several of Juul's contract manufacturing units earlier this year. "We've now released over 50,000 pages of documents to the FDA since April that support our public statements," Juul Chief Executive Officer Kevin Burns said in a statement, adding the meeting with the regulator was constructive and transparent. (Mathias, Banerjee and Abutaleb, 10/2)

The Washington Post: FDA Seizes Juul E-Cigarette Documents In Surprise Inspection Of Headquarters
The Juul product, which is sleek and shaped like a USB drive, has surged in popularity, including among high school students. Critics say some of the e-liquid flavors, including mango and creme, make the product especially appealing to minors. But vaping defenders say such flavors are critical to helping adult smokers switch from more dangerous combustible cigarettes to safer e-cigarettes. (McGinley, 10/2)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Conducted Surprise Inspection Of Juul’s Headquarters
The number of high-school students who used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days has risen roughly 75% since last year to about three million, or about 20% of high-school students, according to unpublished preliminary federal data. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in September that teen use of e-cigarettes “has reached an epidemic proportion.” He announced new measures to curb teen vaping and said he was considering banning flavored products. (Maloney, 10/2)

The Associated Press: Proposed Rule Change Worries Some About Radiation Regulation
The EPA is pursuing rule changes that experts say would weaken the way radiation exposure is regulated, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you — like a little bit of sunlight. The government’s current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer risk. And critics say the proposed change could lead to higher levels of exposure for workers at nuclear installations and oil and gas drilling sites, medical workers doing X-rays and CT scans, people living next to Superfund sites and any members of the public who one day might find themselves exposed to a radiation release. (Knickmeyer, 10/3)

The Washington Post: Nooses, Rotting Teeth And Neglect: Inspectors Find Dismal Conditions At California Immigration Jail
Homeland Security inspectors who made an unannounced visit to a private, for-profit immigration jail in California in May found major violations of federal detention standards, including cells with nooses dangling from air vents, detainees losing teeth from lack of dental care and one disabled inmate left alone in a wheelchair for nine days. The infernal conditions are described in a report issued Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security’s office of inspector general, which audited the facility, overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in Adelanto, Calif. It has a capacity of 1,940 detainees and is run by GEO Group, which owns and operates 71 federal prisons and detention centers with a combined total of 75,500 beds, according to its website. (Miroff, 10/2)

Los Angeles Times: Nooses In Cells, Rotting Teeth — Report Details Harsh Conditions At Adelanto Immigration Facility
“When we asked two contract guards who oversaw the housing units why they did not remove the bedsheets, they echoed it was not a high priority,” officials with the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office wrote in a scathing report made public Tuesday detailing dangerous conditions found at the facility during their unannounced visit. The nooses are just one of many problems posing “significant health and safety risks” identified by federal inspectors at Adelanto, which can house nearly 2,000 detainees as they await the outcome of their immigration cases. (Esquivel and Mejia, 10/2)

ProPublica/The New York Times: Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Chief Executive Resigns From Merck’s Board Of Directors
Dr. Craig B. Thompson, the chief executive of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said Tuesday that he would resign his seats on the boards of drug maker Merck and another public company, the latest fallout from a widening institutional reckoning over relationships between cancer center leaders and for-profit health care companies. Dr. Thompson has served on the board of Merck, the maker of the blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda, since 2008. He has been on the board of Charles River Laboratories, a publicly traded company that assists research in early drug development, since 2013. (Thomas and Ornstein, 10/2)

The Hill: Drug Companies Fear Democratic Congress
Drug companies are gearing up for a fight if Democrats take over the House. Democratic lawmakers say Republicans have gone too easy on the industry and are vowing that will change if they take power in November’s midterm elections. They are promising investigations into rising drug prices and say they will push to allow importation of cheaper medicines from other countries and to allow Medicare to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. (Weixel and Hellmann, 10/3)

Politico: Why Congress Is Poised To Give The Drug Industry A $4B Windfall
President Donald Trump may rail against drug companies “getting away with murder,” but Congress appears to be moving in the opposite direction — helping to boost industry profits. While the pharmaceutical industry lost an eleventh-hour bid last week to attach a $4 billion windfall to Congress’ bipartisan opioid bill, lawmakers and industry analysts expect it to try again with good prospects of prevailing — perhaps as soon as the lame-duck session after the November election. (Karlin-Smith, 10/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Former AmerisourceBergen Exec Blew Whistle That Led To Settlement
The former chief operating officer of an AmerisourceBergen Corp. unit said he revealed information that led to the company’s $625 million settlement with federal and state authorities over allegations that the firm distributed adulterated and misbranded pharmaceuticals. Michael Mullen spoke up internally, which led to his termination, and he then alerted law enforcement, said his lawyer, Bob Thomas, co-founder of the Whistleblower Law Collaborative, a Boston-based law firm that handles whistleblower cases. Mr. Mullen’s complaint was unsealed on Monday in federal court. (Rubenfeld and Maidenberg, 10/2)

Reuters: With Hemlibra, Roche Seeks To Break Into Tight Hemophilia Circle
Swiss drugmaker Roche is breaking into hemophilia A treatment, a $10 billion global market dominated by rivals who have cultivated close ties to sufferers of the genetic bleeding disorder.Roche's Hemlibra, on sale since late 2017 for patients with resistance to existing treatments, is widely expected to win the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's blessing for use in nearly all patients this week. The FDA declined to comment. (Miller, 10/3)

The Associated Press: US Regulators OK Updated Version Of Decades-Old Antibiotic
U.S. regulators on Tuesday approved a modernized version of a decades-old antibiotic used to treat a number of infections. Paratek Pharmaceuticals' Nuzyra was designed to overcome the problem of resistance to tetracycline, an antibiotic widely used until recent years. (Johnson, 10/2)

The Associated Press: Lawmakers Buy Industry Fix To Stop Mass School Shootings
Security companies spent years pushing schools to buy more products — from “ballistic attack-resistant” doors to smoke cannons that spew haze from ceilings to confuse a shooter. But sales were slow, and industry’s campaign to free up taxpayer money for upgrades had stalled. That changed last February, when a former student shot and killed 17 people at a Florida high school. Publicly, the rampage reignited the U.S. gun-control debate. Privately, it propelled industry efforts to sell school fortification as the answer to the mass killing of American kids. (Dunklin and Pritchard, 10/2)

The New York Times: In Australia, Cervical Cancer Could Soon Be Eliminated
Cervical cancer could be eliminated in Australia within the next two decades because of a government program to vaccinate children against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus, according to a new report. The study, published this week in The Lancet Public Health, found that by 2028, fewer than four women in every 100,000 could be diagnosed with cervical cancer annually in Australia — effectively eliminating the disease as a public health problem. And by 2066, the researchers say, less than one woman per year could receive that diagnosis. (Albeck-Ripka, 10/3)

NPR: Patient Satisfaction Ratings May Be A Factor In Doctor's Prescribing Behavior
When they're sick, it seems Americans know what they want: antibiotics. And if they don't get them, their doctors' reputations may suffer. A study published Monday finds that patients rated themselves happiest with their doctor's visit when they got an antibiotic after seeking care for a respiratory tract infection, such as a common cold, whether they needed it or not. (Cohen, 10/3)

The Associated Press: Study: 1 In 3 US Adults Eat Fast Food Each Day
A government study has found that 1 in 3 U.S. adults eat fast food on any given day. That's about 85 million people. It's the first federal study to look at how often adults eat fast food. An earlier study found a similar proportion of children and adolescents ate it on any given day. (10/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Hershey’s Strategy For A Healthy-Snack World
What does a big snack company do when many consumers say they want to eat healthier, and upstarts are grabbing market share? To find out, The Wall Street Journal’s Annie Gasparro spoke with Michele Buck, president and chief executive officer of Hershey Co., at the Journal’s Global Food Forum conference. (10/2)

The Washington Post: Survival After Cardiac Arrest May Depend On Which EMS Agency Shows Up
Whether you survive a cardiac arrest may depend, at least in part, on which emergency medical services agency shows up to treat you, a new study suggests. Researchers found a wide variation in cardiac arrest survival rates depending on which EMS agency provided initial treatment, according to the study published in JAMA Cardiology. (Carroll, 10/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Is It Ethical To Choose Your Baby’s Eye Color?
Blair and James are trying to start a family. Like many parents, they hope their future offspring will be healthy. They’d also like the baby to have blue eyes. The couple, both 35, describe themselves as type-A personalities who research everything. When they decided to try for a baby, they looked into DNA testing to rule out disease-causing genetic mutations they might pass along to their child. Then they learned about a test that might help predict a future baby’s eye color. (Marcus, 10/2)

The New York Times: To Prevent Urinary Tract Infections, Drink Up
Women are commonly advised to drink extra water to prevent recurrent urinary tract infections, or U.T.I.s, but until now there has been little evidence that it works. Now a randomized trial has found that women who drink more water do indeed get fewer infections. Researchers studied 140 women with recurrent U.T.I.s who habitually drank less than one and a half quarts of water a day, and averaged 3.3 episodes of cystitis the previous year. (Bakalar, 10/2)

The Washington Post: Want To Avoid Stressing-Out Your Infant? Breast-Feeding May Help, Study Says.
Mothers have long been told that “breast is best” when it comes to feeding newborn babies, but a small experiment suggests at least some of the benefits may have nothing to do with the milk itself. Pediatricians recommend that mothers exclusively breast-feed infants until they are at least 6 months old because it can bolster babies’ immune systems and reduce their risk of ear and respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, allergies, obesity and diabetes. (Rapaport, 10/2)

The Washington Post: More Than 250 People Worldwide Have Died Taking Selfies, Study Finds
The next time you’re standing at the edge of a scenic cliff or on top of a waterfall, take care when you have the urge to snap a quick selfie. It could very well be the last thing you do. More than 250 people worldwide have died while taking selfies in the last six years, according to a new study from researchers associated with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a group of public medical colleges based in New Delhi. The findings, which analyzed news reports of the 259 selfie-related deaths from October 2011 to November 2017, were published in the July-August edition of the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care. (Chiu, 10/3)

The New York Times: We Slow As We Age, But May Not Need To Slow Too Much
Most of us who are older competitive runners are not able to race at anywhere near the same speed as we did when we were 30. But we can perhaps aim to slow down at the same pace as Bernard Lagat, Ed Whitlock and other greats of masters running, according to a timely new analysis by two professors from Yale University. (Reynolds, 10/3)

The Associated Press: Nurse Attacked At Washington Psychiatric Ward
A patient at Washington state's largest psychiatric hospital vaulted over a nurse's station last weekend, knocked a nurse to the floor, choked her and bit part of her ear off. The assault Sunday night was the latest in a series of attacks on health care workers at Western State Hospital. Hospital spokeswoman Kathy Spears told staff in an email obtained by The Associated Press about the attack. (10/2)

The Associated Press: San Francisco Mayor Weighs Drug Injection Site, Despite Veto
Driven in part by family tragedy, San Francisco Mayor London Breed has repeatedly pledged to open what could be the first supervised drug injection site in the country. However, California Gov. Jerry Brown made the promise tougher to keep when he vetoed legislation over the weekend that would have given San Francisco some legal cover to open a site under a pilot program. (10/2)

The Associated Press: New Rulings On Medical Marijuana Use Go Against Employers
Health care worker Katelin Noffsinger told a potential employer that she took medical marijuana to deal with the effects of a car accident, but when a drug test came back positive, the nursing home rescinded her job offer anyway. A federal judge last month ruled that the nursing home, which had cited federal laws against pot use, violated an anti-discrimination provision of the Connecticut's medical marijuana law. (10/2)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Wrote 1,016 New Laws This Year. Here's Some Of What Did And Didn't Make It
California’s Legislature revved into high gear when it came to writing laws in 2018, sending the most bills to the governor’s desk in more than a decade. In all, Gov. Jerry Brown weighed in on 1,217 pieces of legislation passed by the state Senate and Assembly. He signed 1,016 into law, and most will take effect on Jan. 1. (Myers, 10/2)