Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: What's The Next Step In The Reproductive Rights Battle?; Here's What It's Like Living With Long Covid
Los Angeles Times: Abortion Foes Lost Round One On Mifepristone. Here's How Their Fight Continues
The Supreme Court’s mifepristone decision on June 13 put a stop to one challenge to the drug used in more than half of all abortions in the United States. But antiabortion groups are already preparing their next line of attack. (Mary Ziegler, 6/24)
The Boston Globe: Long Covid Is Like Having A Gun To My Head
I have spent my career studying infectious diseases that fall under the heading of neglected tropical diseases. Now I have a neglected and incurable (for now and for me) disease — long COVID. (Rachel Hall-Clifford, 6/24)
Dallas Morning News: Fewer Americans Are Uninsured. So Why Does Texas Lag The Nation?
Roughly 25 million Americans were uninsured in 2023, down from 27.6 million in 2022 and 33.2 million in 2019, according to a National Center for Health Statistics report. Unfortunately, an estimated 5 million Texans, or 16.6%, are uninsured, a percentage more than twice the national average of 7.6% in 2023. That ranks Texas dead last among the states by a large margin. (6/25)
Stat: How To Advance MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy For PTSD
Many people have interpreted as a setback the “no” vote by an advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration on Lykos Therapeutics’ new drug application for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. We believe it is an opportunity to build upon Lykos’ success and rally support for better-funded, well-controlled clinical trials to determine the safety and efficacy of a promising PTSD treatment. (Andrew D. Forsyth, Mallory O. Johnson and Jae M. Sevelius, 6/25)
Stat: AI Drug Discovery Investments Swamp The Rest Of The R&D Process
Drug discovery has quickly become the most enticing place to apply artificial intelligence. Billions of dollars are being invested in AI-driven “techbios.” In an industry where nothing changes overnight, even large biopharma companies are touting AI as key to how they’re transforming their discovery engines. (Ashu Singhal and Sajith Wickramasekara, 6/25)
