Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Huge Majorities Of Voters Rank Drug Prices As A Top Concern, But Issue Only Getting Passing Mention At Trump's Rallies
Stat: Trump Has Made A Priority Of Trying To Lower Drug Prices. But Many Of His Most Ardent Supporters Don’t Know It
The contrast between the two Trump rallies was striking: At one event here in the first primary state in 2016, President Trump railed against the pharmaceutical industry for more than two full minutes — an eternity for one topic in a campaign speech. Forcefully vowing to reject their donations and pledging to empower Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices to save both voters and the federal government billions, Trump declared: “We’re going to save so much money and those drug companies are going to hate me so much.” (Florko, 8/23)
Stat: They Rallied Around ‘Our Boys’ With Duchenne. Where Did That Leave Girls?
Deb and Shawn Jenssen were used to frustration. Their kids had been turned away from studies. Doctors had questioned if they could really be showing signs of a disease even as it made it harder for them to walk. All of it helped explain why that brief moment in an Orlando hotel conference room caught their attention — why it felt like hope. (Joseph, 8/26)
Stat: Amgen’s R&D Chief On The ‘Slow-Moving Tsunami’ Of Alzheimer’s And The Future Of Disease Research
It’s been just over a month since Amgen and Novartis ended two studies of an experimental Alzheimer’s treatment early, the latest in a long string of failures in Alzheimer’s drug development. There is still no effective treatment for the disease. But as the population ages, the already significant need for an Alzheimer’s treatment is only growing more urgent, said Dr. David Reese, executive vice president of research and development at Amgen. (Thielking, 8/23)
