Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Sterigenics' Ethylene Oxide Emissions Lead To $363M Cancer Payment
Crain's Chicago Business: Sterigenics To Pay $363M For Cancer-Causing Ethylene Oxide Emissions
Medical-sterilization company Sterigenics has been found liable by a Cook County, Illinois, jury for causing cancer in a Willowbrook resident. The company was ordered to pay Sue Kamuda $363 million after she took the company to court and claimed that emissions from its now-shuttered plant gave her cancer. (Jay, 9/19)
Chicago Tribune: Jury Says Sterigenics Should Pay $363 Million To Cancer Survivor
Around the same time Sue Kamuda moved to Willowbrook during the mid-1980s, a Chicago company chose the west suburb as a new site for its rapidly expanding business sterilizing medical instruments, pharmaceutical drugs and spices. (Hawthorne, 9/19)
In updates on J&J bankruptcy —
Reuters: Cancer Victims Urge Court To End J&J Bankruptcy Roadblock To Lawsuits
People suing Johnson & Johnson over the company's talc products urged an appeals court on Monday to revive their claims, saying the profitable company should not be allowed to use a bankrupt subsidiary to block lawsuits alleging the products cause cancer. (Knauth, 9/19)
NPR: J&J Tries To Block Baby Powder Lawsuits By 40,000 Patients. A Court Has Question
An attorney for Johnson and Johnson faced probing questions Monday over the corporation's use of a controversial bankruptcy maneuver that has frozen tens of thousands of lawsuits linked to Johnson's baby powder. During the hearing, members of a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia asked whether J&J had used the legal strategy to gain "a litigation advantage" over roughly 40,000 cancer patients who have sued the company. (Mann, 9/19)
In other pharmaceutical industry news —
Bloomberg: Amazon PillPack Founders To Leave In Latest Health-Care Shakeup
Amazon.com Inc. is parting ways with the two founders of the drug prescription startup the company acquired to jumpstart its health care ambitions. TJ Parker, who co-founded PillPack with Elliot Cohen, informed employees that the pair would be leaving Amazon at the end of this month. “You should all be so proud of what we were able to achieve together,” Parker wrote in a note that he also posted on LinkedIn. (Day, 9/19)
Stat: Pfizer Accused Of Running A Fellowship Program That Discriminates On Racial Grounds
In a move reflecting simmering controversy over diversity and equity, Pfizer has been accused of running a racially discriminatory fellowship program because it “categorically excludes” white and Asian American applicants, according to a lawsuit filed by an advocacy group that includes doctors, patients, and policymakers. But some legal experts question whether the argument can succeed. (Silverman, 9/19)
Stat: House Democrat Presses Bill To Encourage More Diversity In Clinical Trials
Rep. Robin Kelly admits that the word “diversity” has scared some of her Republican colleagues away from her effort to improve representation in clinical trials. (Castillo, 9/19)
Stat: New CRISPR Startup Seeks To Fix Diseases Caused By Large DNA Errors
A new CRISPR startup — backed by some big names in venture capital — is planning to develop gene-editing treatments that can insert a genetic sequence of any length, at any location in the DNA strand, according to industry insiders and documents. (DeAngelis, 9/20)
