Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: 34% Of Top US Clinical Research Funders Have Transparency Issues
Stat: Study Faults Large U.S. Funders Of Clinical Research On Transparency
Amid ongoing concern over clinical trial transparency, a new analysis finds that only 37% of the 14 largest public and philanthropic organizations that fund clinical research in the U.S. have implemented the best disclosure practices recommended by the World Health Organization. (Silverman, 4/17)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Reuters: US Supreme Court Rebuffs Novartis Bid To Revive MS Drug Gilenya Patent
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp's bid to revive a key patent on its blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya that was invalidated amid a legal dispute with China's HEC Pharm Co Ltd. (Brittain, 4/17)
The Washington Post: Amid ADHD Med Shortage, Parents Fear Sending Unmedicated Kids To School
Annie Artiga Garner feels a pit in her stomach every time a teacher approaches at school pickup for her twin 9-year-old boys, both in fourth grade and both diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Like a lot of kids with ADHD (62 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) the twins take medication to help control the symptoms of the neurodevelopmental disorder. The medications target some of the symptoms of ADHD, including lack of attention, hyperactivity, impulsive behavior and executive dysfunction. (Spinner, 4/17)
CIDRAP: Genomic Study Links Antibiotic Resistance To Diet, Geography, Demographics
A large genomic study of the gut microbiome suggests that antibiotic use is not the only factor contributing to the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the population. The authors of the study, which was presented at this week's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark, say the findings indicate that other medications, along with geography, demographics, and diet, also play a role. (Dall, 4/17)
Stat: Once A Distant Dream, Gene Therapy For Duchenne Nears Reality
Brent and Sabina Furbee could see something was wrong with their son, Emerson, even if the doctors didn’t. They were the kind of signs easily dismissed: falling at music class, struggling to climb a ladder at the playground. A physical therapist near their home in rural Tennessee said the 3-year-old had flat feet and prescribed ankle braces. “I wish I was kidding,” said Brent. (Mast and Feuerstein, 4/17)
KFF Health News: Social Media Is Fueling Enthusiasm For New Weight Loss Drugs. Are Regulators Watching?
Suzette Zuena is her own best advertisement for weight loss. Zuena, the “founder/visionary” of LH Spa & Rejuvenation in Livingston and Madison, New Jersey, has dropped 30 pounds. Her husband has lost 42 pounds. “We go out a lot,” Zuena said of the pair’s social routine. “People saw us basically shrinking.” They would ask how the couple did it. Her response: Point people to her spa and a relatively new type of medication — GLP-1 agonists, a class of drug that’s become a weight loss phenomenon. (Tahir and Norman, 4/18)
Also —
Reuters: Spanish Hospital Pioneers New Lung Transplant Approach
A Spanish hospital has carried out a lung transplant using a pioneering technique with a robot and a new access route that no longer requires cutting through bone, experts said on Monday. (4/17)
Stat: What Do Clinical Trial Delays Mean? More Than You Think
Frank David was just starting an independent research program on cell signaling in cancer and kidney development at a lab in Boston when he realized he’d rather be doing something else. “I figured out I was more interested in how science turned into medicine than I was in actually making and discovering new science,” he recalled. The problem was, he wasn’t sure what to do instead. (Goode, 4/17)
Stat: Why Do Some Blood Stem Cells Go Rogue? Study Finds A Key
Long before leukemia forms, patients often have a population of blood or hematopoietic stem cells, all copies of one another that seem perfectly healthy except for harboring key mutations often also found in malignant cells. Hematologists call this CHIP — clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential — because these cells progress into cancer in about 1% of patients each year. (Chen, 4/17)
In obituaries —
The Washington Post: Theodor Diener, Scientist Who Discovered The Tiny Viroid, Dies At 102
Theodor O. Diener, a Swiss-born scientist whose investigation more than half a century ago of shriveled, stunted potatoes yielded the discovery of the tiniest known agent of infectious disease, a particle one-eightieth the size of a virus that he named the viroid, died March 28 at his home in Beltsville, Md. He was 102. His son Michael Diener confirmed his death but did not cite a cause. Dr. Diener immigrated to the United States in 1949 and spent three decades as a plant pathologist at the Agricultural Research Service, the chief internal research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ... The condition had a name — potato spindle tuber disease — but its cause proved vexingly elusive. (Langer, 4/13)
