Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Gilead Eyes Cancer Therapy Acquisition Targets
Bloomberg: Gilead Chief Has $21 Billion In Cash And An Itch To Do A Deal
John Milligan was the 32nd employee at Gilead Sciences Inc. when he was hired as a research scientist in 1990. Now, he’s at the helm of the biggest biotechnology firm in the world, charged with maintaining the company’s blistering pace of growth to satisfy investors anxious about a slowdown in its blockbuster hepatitis C treatments. (Chen, 5/6)
NPR: Professional 'Guinea Pigs' Can Make A Living Testing Drugs
There are lots of ways to make a buck, but becoming a human guinea pig for drug research has to be one of the oddest. "We are selling our bodies, most definitely," says Paul Clough, who has taken part in more than 80 drug tests in the past 11 years. "Well, renting," might be more accurate, he concedes. Clough, who's 37, also runs a website that helps people find trials to sign up for. Some are like the one he's doing right now, which stretches over three months and involves multiple stints living in a clinic with other volunteers, eating cafeteria food and showing up on time to get his vitals checked or to pop another pill. (Bichell, 5/8)
NPR: How A Cancer Drug Has Saved People From Going Blind
Ten years may not seem like a long time, but in my field, ophthalmology, it has made the difference between going blind and still being able to drive. Ten years ago, if you developed wet age-related macular degeneration, a disease that wreaks havoc on central vision and limits the ability to read, recognize faces and generally see up close, there wasn't much we could do. If you were lucky and had a specific form of the disease, the best we had to offer was a laser treatment called photodynamic therapy, or PDT. Sadly, it didn't really do enough to help save vision; most people's sight still worsened. Then some brilliant minds applied principles of cancer therapy to come up with a treatment that could actually improve vision in people with wet AMD. (Rosenthal, 5/6)
Politico Pro: House Dems Back White House On Drug Plan
A group of House Democrats is defending the Obama administration’s Part B demonstration project in the face of opposition to the project on the part of drug makers, doctors, Republicans and some patient groups. (Haberkorn, 5/9)
