Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Uber Expands Its Medication Delivery Business
Stat: With Amazon And Ro On Its Heels, Uber Expands Prescription Delivery
After steering into prescription delivery in two cities last summer with digital pharmacy startup NimbleRx, ride-hailing giant Uber hitched itself a new and more expansive ride with medication delivery service ScriptDrop on Wednesday. The deal makes Uber the default delivery app for thousands of pharmacies and health systems in 37 states. It also comes at a critical time for the digital pharmacy sector, which has boomed alongside virtual care amid the pandemic. (Brodwin, 3/24)
Axios: Hospitals Still In "Survival Mode," Inspector General Report Finds
A year into the pandemic, hospitals say they're still in "survival mode," according to a new report from the Health and Human Services Department's inspector general. Health care workers have had to deal with long hours, overwhelming patient volumes and supply shortages — all on top of a high risk of infection, and the isolation that we've all experienced. (Fernandez, 3/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Cardinal Health, FourKites Target Deeper View Of Medical Supply Chain
When Covid-19 infections surged in New York last spring, a rush on medical supplies caught healthcare providers off guard, challenging inventory and tracking systems built for more predictable demand. To cope with that volatility, more manufacturers and suppliers are scaling up the use of tracking technology to ensure critical medical shipments arrive on time and intact. Sophisticated devices that log a shipment’s location and temperature in real time have become essential tools in the rush to distribute fragile Covid-19 vaccine shots, for example, to pandemic-weary populations. (Smith, 3/24)
In pharmaceutical news —
Stat: Pfizer Hopes For Happy Ending For Osteoarthritis Drug With Troubled History
For more than a decade, Pfizer (PFE) has run dozens of trials in hopes of eventually marketing a treatment for osteoarthritic pain, but critics argue the Food and Drug Administration would be mistaken to approve the drug over concerns it could do more harm than good. The debate has emerged as the agency hosts a two-day meeting of experts, which began on Wednesday morning, to assess tanezumab. (Silverman, 3/24)
