Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Statins Have Another Trick: Decreasing Risk Of Deadliest Strokes
CNN: Statins Lower The Risk Of One Of The Deadliest Kinds Of Strokes, Study Finds
Doctors know that drugs called statins lower a person’s risk of a stroke due to a blood clot. But a new study shows that the inexpensive medications can also decrease the risk of a first stroke as a result of an intracerebral hemorrhage, the deadliest kind. (Christensen, 12/7)
On metastatic melanoma —
Stat: In ‘Landmark’ Study, Cell Therapy Exceeds Expectations In Melanoma Patients
When tumors like melanoma form, the immune system mobilizes for war. White blood cells called lymphocytes rush to assault the tumor — but cancer has ways of disabling the immune system. Once the immune cells penetrate the area in and around the tumor, they can be caught in chemical snares that render them inert or exhausted, so they cease working. (Chen, 12/7)
NBC News: New Immunotherapy May Be More Effective For Advanced Melanoma
The results of a phase 3 clinical trial published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the treatment, which uses a superconcentrated boost of the person's own immune cells, was more effective than the leading existing treatment at putting patients into remission. (Miller, 12/7)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Stat: FDA Scolds Valisure, Which Raised Red Flags Over Drug Impurities
Two years after an independent laboratory began pushing the Food and Drug Administration to analyze various medicines for traces of carcinogens, the agency sent inspectors to the company and cited it for failing to comply with federal law. (Silverman, 12/7)
The Boston Globe: Vor Biopharma Says First Patient Given Its Gene Editing Therapy For Leukemia Is In Remission
A Cambridge biotech company using CRISPR gene editing to develop therapies for blood cancers said that its experimental treatment for acute myeloid leukemia proved safe in the first recipient, who is currently in remission. (Cross, 12/7)
Stat: Prometheus’ Inflammatory Bowel Drug Succeeds In Two Mid-Stage Trials
An investigative medicine from Prometheus Biosciences met its goals in a pair of Phase 2 studies enrolling patients with inflammatory bowel disease, setting the stage for pivotal trials and nearly doubling the company’s stock price. (Garde, 12/7)
