Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pharma Launches Big Image-Improvement Campaign
Stat: PhRMA’s New Message To Washington: Don’t Take Us For Granted
Pharmaceutical companies have a frank new message for Washington: Don’t take us for granted. The industry’s lobbying group, PhRMA, launched a new, seven-figure ad campaign Tuesday with that sentiment prominently laid out across the top, just above a clear reminder of the industry’s role in developing medicines and vaccines for Covid-19. (Florko, 4/13)
The Baltimore Sun: Pay For CEO Of Emergent BioSolutions, Maker Of COVID Vaccine In Baltimore, Increased 51% In 2020
The president and CEO of Emergent BioSolutions, a Gaithersburg-based maker of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine at a troubled East Baltimore plant, saw his compensation grow 51% last year. Robert Kramer, 63, who has led Emergent BioSolutions since April 2019, earned $5.6 million in 2020, up from $3.7 million in total pay in 2019, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Mirabella, 4/12)
Stat: Huntington’s Community Grieves Not Just One Therapeutic Setback, But Two
For the community of people affected by Huntington’s disease — a group that is no stranger to disappointment — the back-to-back announcements last month still hit like a double whammy. First, Roche announced it was cutting off the dosing of its experimental therapy tominersen, in a closely watched, much-hyped Phase 3 clinical trial. Then, a week later, Wave Life Sciences said it was abandoning two Huntington’s therapies in earlier stage trials. (Joseph, 4/13)
The Wall Street Journal: Antios Therapeutics Takes Aim At Hepatitis B With $96 Million Financing
Biotechnology startup Antios Therapeutics Inc. has secured $96 million in venture capital to fund its quest to effectively cure people with chronic hepatitis B infections. Hepatitis B is liver inflammation caused by infection with the hepatitis B virus. Most healthy adults who are infected can clear the virus, according to the Hepatitis B Foundation. But in some people hepatitis B infections persist for the long term. Chronic hepatitis B infection can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and death. (Gormley, 4/12)
AP: Unusual Treatment Shows Promise For Kids With Brain Tumors
For decades, a deadly type of childhood cancer has eluded science’s best tools. Now doctors have made progress with an unusual treatment: Dripping millions of copies of a virus directly into kids’ brains to infect their tumors and spur an immune system attack. A dozen children treated this way lived more than twice as long as similar patients have in the past, doctors reported Saturday at an American Association for Cancer Research conference and in the New England Journal of Medicine. Although most of them eventually died of their disease, a few are alive and well several years after treatment -- something virtually unheard of in this situation. (Marchione, 4/12)
CIDRAP: Audit And Feedback, Prior Approval May Reduce Fluoroquinolone Use
A study of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals found that prospective audit and feedback (PAF) and prior-approval strategies focused on fluoroquinolone use were associated with lower fluoroquinolone prescribing rates, US researchers reported today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. Despite multiple safety warnings on fluoroquinolones from the Food and Drug Administration and concerns about antibiotic resistance and Clostridioides difficile infection, the antibiotics are frequently prescribed in US healthcare settings. In the two-part study, conducted at 15 VA acute-care medical centers, researchers surveyed antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) leaders about the local implementation and acceptability of different strategies to improve fluoroquinolone prescribing, along with analysis of data on antibiotic administration at each hospital in 2017 and 2018. The researchers then compared fluoroquinolone days of therapy (DOT) per 1,000 days present (DP) for sites with and without PAF and/or prior approval. (4/12)
Stat: Sage Drug Reduces Muscle Tremor But With Significant Side Effects
Sage Therapeutics said Monday that its experimental pill was more effective than a placebo in treating patients with essential tremors, a neurological condition that causes involuntary, rhythmic muscle shaking, in a mid-stage trial. But a high starting dose of the drug was not well tolerated. More than 60% of patients had to switch to lower doses of the treatment, called SAGE-324, because of side effects, including sleepiness and drowsiness. (Feuerstein, 4/12)
