Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Surgeries Postponed As Donated Blood Supply Is 'Dangerously' Low
CBS News: Dangerously Low Blood Supply In U.S. Forces Some Hospitals To Postpone Surgeries
Blood centers in some U.S. cities are down to a one-day supply, forcing hospitals to postpone surgeries. The blood shortage is yet another fallout from the pandemic, experts say. OneBlood, the Southeast's largest blood center, is scrambling to manage the blood shortage crisis. "It's a 24/7 operation," said OneBlood's Susan Forbes. "The donors are not in the traditional locations anymore. We lost large corporations, religious organizations, movie theater drives, festivals that were taking place ended." (Lapook, 7/6)
Stat: Transplant System Scrambled Amid Covid To Keep Donations Almost Steady
This is not a pandemic “silver lining” story. This is a could-have-been-far-worse story about how the pandemic did not fuel a catastrophe in transplantation or worsen the persistent gap between people who need organs and the donations that supply them. But just as the pandemic is not over yet, neither is the potential danger of related ramifications for people whose organs may fail and need replacement. (Cooney, 7/7)
Lake Geneva News: Young Man Gets Rare Heart-Lung Transplant At UW After Breathing Problems Worsen
Doctors told Daniel Milburn’s family he had asthma. But when the 24-year-old’s breathing problems turned worse this spring, tests showed major blood clots in his lungs had put so much pressure on his heart that all of the organs were failing. On April 4, Easter Sunday, Milburn got a second chance for life with a rare heart-lung transplant at UW Hospital. “My breathing is 100% now,” he said this week, nearly three months later. “I don’t ever remember breathing like this before.” It was UW Hospital’s first heart-lung transplant since 2008, coming after Milburn clung to life on a heart-lung machine and was found to have had a life-threatening clotting condition likely for years.
In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —
Stat: The Failure Of A Cancer Drug Study Leaves Cel-Sci On The Brink Of Collapse
The failure of Cel-Sci’s immunotherapy treatment called Multikine to prolong the survival of patients with head and neck cancer has pushed the tiny biotech to the precipice of insolvency. The only remaining uncertainty is how long Cel-Sci’s management team can delay the inevitable shutdown. That might be years if biotech history — and the company’s penchant for misleading investors about Multikine — is any guide. The company’s already-plunging share price, however, isn’t likely to prove so durable. (Feuerstein, 7/6)
Stat: Accelerated Approval: A Promising Roadmap For Rare Diseases
The FDA’s decision to grant accelerated approval to Biogen’s aducanumab (Aduhelm) for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease was a difficult and bold one that people with the disease, their families, and other drug developers should be applauding. When it comes to making new therapies for complex, difficult-to-treat diseases, history has shown that progress can’t be made without taking a first — often controversial — step. Without the FDA’s accelerated approval program and novel first treatments based on new and imperfect biomarker endpoints, HIV would not be a controllable disease today, and we might not have such a flourishing clinical research ecosystem in oncology. (Kakkis, 7/7)
Stat: The Most Intriguing Health Tech Deals Of The Year (So Far)
In the world of digital health, money is flying around like never before. All that cash is driving dealmaking that will shape the future of the sector. Enthusiastic investors angling to get in on the virtual care boom brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic have propped up sky-high valuations. Companies hoping to capitalize on their first-mover advantages are scooping up complementary businesses in an effort to assemble category winners. The SPAC craze has found many willing targets among emerging companies that hope to one day turn a profit but are ready to go public now. (Aguilar, Brodwin Palmer and Ross, 7/6)
Stat: How Doximity Parlayed Its Popularity With Doctors Into A Blockbuster IPO
Doximity exploded onto the public markets last month with an IPO that saw share values of the physician social networking startup double in 24 hours. The company raised $500 million — and the eyebrows of many industry observers — with its stock market debut, its first public fundraise since 2014. More than 10,000 physicians participated in the IPO, making them the biggest collective Doximity shareholder, according to Nate Gross, the company’s co-founder and chief strategy officer. (Brodwin, 7/7)
