Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Sticker-Based Measles Vaccine Proves Effective In Trial
NPR: A Measles Vaccine Delivered Via Sticker Shows Promising Early Results
Vaccine experts tend to be a serious bunch, but many are downright giddy about vaccine clinical trial results presented last week at a medical conference in Seattle. The actual vaccine isn't new — it's the one used to protect against measles and rubella (German measles) and was formulated decades ago. But new results show that the novel delivery system, in development for more than two decades, could be a big step forward, especially for low-income countries. (Kritz, 5/26)
In other pharma and biotech news —
CIDRAP: Federal Officials Open National Bio And Agro-Defense Facility
Yesterday federal officials and leaders from Kansas formally opened the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas, marking the culmination of plans that have been in the works since 2006 to replace the 68-year-old Plum Island Animal Disease Facility, a biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) facility in New York. The NBAF is the nation's only large-animal BSL-4 facility that is designed to handle pathogens that don't have any treatments or countermeasures. (Schnirring, 5/25)
CNBC: Elon Musk's Neuralink Gets FDA Approval For In-Human Study
Neuralink, the neurotech startup co-founded by Elon Musk, announced Thursday it has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to conduct its first in-human clinical study. Neuralink is building a brain implant called the Link, which aims to help patients with severe paralysis control external technologies using only neural signals. This means patients with severe degenerative diseases like ALS could eventually regain their ability to communicate with loved ones by moving cursors and typing with their minds. (Capoot, 5/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Icahn Nominee Elected To Illumina’s Board
Illumina shareholders voted to elect one of activist investor Carl Icahn’s three nominees to the company’s board of directors, giving him a partial victory in a bruising proxy battle he launched over the biotechnology company’s handling of a risky acquisition. (Loftus, 5/25)
Axios: FDA Weighs When Software Becomes A Medical Device
An effort to get the FDA to pull a widely used prescription drug monitoring software package off the market is stoking a broader debate over how much technology is influencing opioid prescribing. The Center for U.S. Policy says Bamboo Health's NarxCare should be classified a medical device and subject to regulation, because of the way it helps doctors and other providers decide if a patient should get painkillers. (Gonzalez and Moreno, 5/26)
Stat: Gilead And Teva Defend Antitrust Claims That Prices For HIV Medicines Were Unfairly Kept High
Amid concern that HIV prevention pills are not being widely taken by those at highest risk of infection, AIDS activists hope that a trial getting underway in a federal courtroom this week will help explain why the medicine has struggled to see uptake. (Silverman, 5/25)
