Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Research Roundup: Prescription For Drug Reform; Sexual Orientation and Depression in Adolescents
The BMJ: Healing An Ailing Pharmaceutical System: Prescription For Reform For United States And Canada
To improve access and population health, we propose universal, first dollar coverage (full insurance with no cost sharing) of all medically necessary drugs, echoing Archie Cochrane’s famous invocation that “all effective treatments must be free.” Each nation should establish a national formulary of covered drugs, which should include all medications shown to improve the length or quality of life—or the safest, most effective, and least expensive option when equivalent agents are available. (Gaffney, 5/17)
Pediatrics: Sexual Orientation and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents
Sexual minority adolescents reported higher depressive symptoms than heterosexual adolescents from late adolescence into young adulthood. Collectively, low family satisfaction, cyberbullying victimization, and unmet medical needs accounted for >45% of differences by sexual orientation. (Luk, Gilman, Haynie and Simons-Morton, 5/1)
Annals of Internal Medicine: A Novel Strategy for Increasing Access to Treatment for Hepatitis C Virus Infection for Medicaid Beneficiaries
An estimated 2.7 to 3.9 million persons in the United States were living with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in 2015. ... In response, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a committee of experts to develop a national strategy for eliminating HCV infection as a public health problem. The report concluded that these new treatments could avert nearly 30 000 deaths and reduce incidence of this condition by 90% by 2030. (Sood, Ung, Shankar and Strom, 5/17)
NEJM: Addressing Generic-Drug Market Failures — The Case for Establishing a Nonprofit Manufacturer
We believe that market-based solutions are an important alternative approach to stimulating competition in generic-drug markets. One such solution is to establish a nonprofit generic-drug manufacturer with the explicit mission of producing affordable versions of essential drugs and ensuring a stable supply of such products. A consortium of hospitals and health plans, including Intermountain Healthcare, Trinity Health, SSM Health, and Ascension, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs and philanthropists, is following this approach and developing a nonprofit generic-drug manufacturer code-named Project Rx. (Liljenquist and Anderson, 5/17)
