Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Some Medicines Still Contain Toxic Ingredients; Extremism Is A Public Health Issue
Newsweek: We've Cleaned Up Our Makeup. It's Time To Clean Up Our Medicine
Americans today are savvier than ever when it comes to the products we buy. Organic food, non-toxic cleaning products, clean beauty and sustainable fashion have become de rigueur. In addition to the health and environmental benefits for consumers, it has meant big business for the brands involved. In fact, according to the 2020 Organic Industry Survey, U.S. organic food sales passed $50 billion, up more than 4 percent from the previous year. Research and Markets reported that the global household green cleaning products market is expected to grow from $17.90 billion in 2017 to $27.83 billion by the end of 2024; and the clean beauty industry was recently valued at $1 billion. Almost no sector has been left untouched—that is except for Big Pharma. (Amy Shah, 6/15)
The Atlantic: The U.S. Is Fighting Extremism All Wrong
To fight this amorphous kind of radicalization, the federal government needs to see the problem as a whole-of-society, public-health issue. It needs to, for example, beef up security at the U.S. Capitol, but also put the same kind of effort and money into preventing radicalization years before anyone would ever think to mobilize in Washington, D.C. (Cynthia Miller-Idriss, 6/15)
Stat: 6 Ways The FDA's Approval Of Aduhelm Does More Harm Than Good
Like many people, I was shocked when the Food and Drug Administration ignored the advice of its neurological drugs advisory panel and broadly approved Biogen’s new drug, Aduhelm, even for populations never included in the clinical trials to assess the drug. I am not a casual bystander to this controversial decision. I am a physician who has been treating people with Alzheimer’s since 1982; an early researcher into the biology of amyloid, the brain protein that Aduhelm targets; someone with a strong personal family history of dementia — I have shared the responsibility of caring for seven relatives who died from Alzheimer’s disease over the past 40 years; and have personally undergone biomarker assessment for an amyloid-lowering drug trial. (Sam Gandy, 6/15)
FiercePharma: Biogen's Hefty Aduhelm Cost Sparks Even More Talk Of A Drug Pricing Crackdown. But Will It Happen?
A $56,000 annual price tag for a drug with questionable credentials? Let the feeding frenzy begin for politicians who have long supported drug price reform and now have a poster child for their cause—Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease treatment Aduhelm, which secured a controversial FDA approval on Monday despite mixed trial results. Reaction from Washington, D.C. was immediate. In a tweet, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called the price “unconscionable” and said that Medicare should have the right to negotiate prices directly with drugmakers. (Dunleavy, 6/10)
