STAT
DECEMBER 19, 2023
Pfizer is this year’s anti-Eli Lilly. If David Ricks is the best biopharma CEO of 2023 , then Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is, unfortunately, the worst. My annual Worst Biopharma CEO list is typically populated with blockheads and scoundrels. That’s not why Bourla is here. The reason is accountability. Strategic missteps , financial miscalculations, and scientific setbacks have plunged Pfizer into a deep crisis.
pharmaphorum
NOVEMBER 22, 2023
Talking techbio with NVIDIA: Accelerated computing, NLP, and GenAI in drug discovery Mike.
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BioPharma Dive
DECEMBER 20, 2023
The Healey center is at the front of ALS research and care, earning acclaim from patients, doctors and scientists. Still, the complexities of the disease and of drug development have brought hard-felt losses.
Pharmacy Times
NOVEMBER 6, 2023
AI is expected to significantly quicken the pace of drug design and development, while improving the success rate of new medicines.
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Pharmaceutical Technology
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
Texas AG has sued Pfizer and Tris Pharma for providing adulterated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder drug, Quillivant XR, to children.
STAT
NOVEMBER 28, 2023
Since the FDA’s approval of lecanemab (marketed as Leqembi) and Medicare’s recent decision to cover the drug, I have met with Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones who are anxious to know whether they may benefit from this new treatment. They come in hope that this new medication may slow the progression of a cruel memory-robbing and personality-eroding disease.
Pharmacist Digest brings together the best content for pharmacists from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
PharmaVoice
SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
This year’s honorees are influential and devoted leaders lifting the pillars of the industry to new heights.
European Pharmaceutical Review
MARCH 9, 2023
A pilot study has demonstrated that a nasal version of the drug Foralumab, an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody suppressed the inflammatory T cell response and decreased lung inflammation in patients with COVID-19. “This is the first nasal monoclonal antibody—other monoclonal antibody treatments were delivered intravenously and are no longer given as treatment because they are not effective against currently circulating viral variants,” explained Dr Howard Weiner, founder and Director of the Brigham
FDA Law Blog: Biosimilars
DECEMBER 4, 2023
By Larry K. Houck — Separate decisions by federal district courts in Texas and Puerto Rico in the past two months provide cautionary tales for every pharmacy and wholesale distributor dispensing or distributing controlled substances. On October 10th, based on ability to pay, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas imposed a $275,000 civil penalty on Zarzamora Healthcare LLC, in San Antonio, and its pharmacist-owner.
STAT
DECEMBER 28, 2023
Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group used secret rules to restrict access to rehabilitation care requested by specific groups of seriously ill patients, including those who lived in nursing homes or suffered from cognitive impairment, according to internal documents obtained by STAT. The documents, which outline parameters for the clinicians who initially review referrals for rehab care, reveal that many patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans were routed for a quick denial based on c
Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson
In the world of small business management, the challenge of managing payroll & HR efficiently while scaling operations can be overwhelming. Yet, with the right strategies in place, these challenges can become opportunities for growth and innovation. In this session, Joe Sharpe, Senior Director of Managed Payroll Services at IRIS, will reveal practical methods and expert insights for outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes, resulting in substantial time and resource savings.
STAT
DECEMBER 26, 2023
There’s ample evidence that private equity buyouts in health care drive up costs. A new study shows quality declines, too. Hospitals acquired by private equity saw a 25% uptick in adverse events compared with controls, according to a new study released today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings add to an accumulating body of literature underscoring the harm that occurs when financial investors take over health care providers — not only hospitals, but nur
STAT
DECEMBER 27, 2023
Reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption reduces the risk of developing oral cavity and esophagus cancers, according to a special report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer. But more data are needed to conclude whether the same is true for several other cancer types, including colorectal, breast, and liver cancer. Even so, it is likely that reducing or ceasing to drink alcohol will lessen the risk of these cancers, said Farhad Islami, a cancer epidemiologist at the American C
STAT
DECEMBER 19, 2023
American taxpayers footed the bill for at least $1.8 trillion in federal and state health care expenditures in 2022 — about 41% of the nearly $4.5 trillion in both public and private health care spending the U.S. recorded last year, according to the annual report released last week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. On top of that $1.8 trillion, third-party programs, which are often government-funded, and public health programs accounted for another $600 billion in spendin
STAT
DECEMBER 29, 2023
It’s time to take stock of the year that was in health and science: the meteoric rise of weight loss drugs , the approval of the first CRISPR-based therapy , the continuing effects of abortion access restrictions after the Dobbs decision, and much more. Below is our annual list of stories that STAT staffers loved, and wish that they had written.
Speaker: Chris Antypas and Josh Halladay
Access to limited distribution drugs and payer contracts are key to pharmacy expansion. But how do you prepare your operations to take the next step? Meaningful data: Collect and share clinical data regarding outcomes, utilization, and more Reporting: Limited distribution models require efficient tracking and reporting systems Workflows: Align workflows with specific pharma and payer contractual requirements For in-depth, expert insights on pharmacy expansion, watch this webinar from Inovalon.
STAT
DECEMBER 15, 2023
A Texas woman’s unsuccessful legal fight for an abortion on medical emergency grounds drew nationwide headlines in recent days, but her plight is hardly a rare occurrence amid vague and highly restrictive state laws in the post-Roe era. Kate Cox is likely one of hundreds, if not thousands, of Texans who’ve faced a similar struggle this year to get an abortion for medical reasons, according to a STAT review of studies and abortion data from other states.
STAT
DECEMBER 12, 2023
Medicare Advantage beneficiaries on Tuesday filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the health insurance giant Humana illegally used an algorithm to prematurely cut off payment for rehabilitation care after patients suffered serious illnesses and injuries. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Western Kentucky, argues Humana’s reliance on the algorithm, known as nH Predict, was part of a fraudulent scheme to reap a windfall by systematically denying claims to desperately ill people
STAT
DECEMBER 13, 2023
PHILADELPHIA — The meds Shelby Campbell needed for her rare blood disorder stopped working just after her sixth birthday. She lost her appetite and was often doubled over in pain. She continued getting blood transfusions but her doctors struggled to manage side effects that threatened her organs. By the time she turned 7, the doctors told her parents they had to do something — soon.
STAT
DECEMBER 8, 2023
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the world’s first medicine based on CRISPR gene-editing technology, a groundbreaking treatment for sickle cell disease that delivers a potential cure for people born with the chronic and life-shortening blood disorder. The new medicine , called Casgevy, is made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics.
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STAT
NOVEMBER 28, 2023
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it is investigating whether CAR-T therapy, which uses genetically modified white blood cells to attack tumors, can in rare cases cause lymphoma, a blood cancer. “Although the overall benefits of these products continue to outweigh their potential risks for their approved uses, FDA is investigating the identified risk of T cell malignancy with serious outcomes, including hospitalization and death, and is evaluating the need for regulatory
STAT
DECEMBER 7, 2023
TIJUANA, Mexico — Just over a decade ago, when Crystal Pérez Lira needed an abortion, she had to leave Mexico. The procedure was illegal in her home state of Baja California and so deeply stigmatized that even Pérez Lira supported the procedure only for those who were raped. Until she unexpectedly got pregnant. She traveled to the U.S. for help, walking alone across the border from Tijuana to San Diego, first for a health check and a compulsory ultrasound, and then back for a se
STAT
NOVEMBER 28, 2023
Mayo Clinic will spend $5 billion to reinvent its flagship medical campus in Rochester, Minn., infusing digital technologies into several new buildings designed to present a 21st-century vision of clinical care, the organization said Tuesday. The project, to include five new buildings with 2.4 million square feet of space, will merge Mayo’s traditional medical services with its increasing investments in artificial intelligence and digital tools.
STAT
NOVEMBER 24, 2023
Reports this week that China is experiencing a surge in respiratory infections in young children triggered flashbacks of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic among infectious disease watchers. But a rapidly organized meeting Thursday between the World Health Organization and health officials in China assuaged much of that concern. The evidence presented to the WHO team pointed to what’s sometimes called an immunity gap that was created by the pandemic.
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STAT
NOVEMBER 16, 2023
LONDON — Regulators in the U.K. on Thursday approved a CRISPR-based medicine to treat both sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, making it the world’s first therapy built on the revolutionary gene-editing technology and ushering in a new phase of genetic medicine. The authorization of the therapy, from Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, is itself not a surprise.
STAT
DECEMBER 6, 2023
As a teenager, Marie Tornyenu was always having to explain herself. If it wasn’t the chronic absences that had her doing homework from a hospital bed, it was the quilted blanket she carried with her on the days she could attend class. “It was a running joke that I was like 80 years old,” she said. “I would usually just laugh it off because the alternative was too depressing.
STAT
NOVEMBER 14, 2023
A class action lawsuit was filed Tuesday against UnitedHealth Group and a subsidiary alleging that they are illegally using an algorithm to deny rehabilitation care to seriously ill patients, even though the companies know the algorithm has a high error rate. The class action suit, filed on behalf of deceased patients who had a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan and their families by the California-based Clarkson Law Firm, follows the publication of a STAT investigation Tuesday.
STAT
NOVEMBER 14, 2023
The nation’s largest health insurance company pressured its medical staff to cut off payments for seriously ill patients in lockstep with a computer algorithm’s calculations, denying rehabilitation care for older and disabled Americans as profits soared, a STAT investigation has found. UnitedHealth Group has repeatedly said its algorithm, which predicts how long patients will need to stay in rehab, is merely a guidepost for their recoveries.
STAT
NOVEMBER 13, 2023
The life expectancy of men in the U.S. is nearly six years shorter than that of women, according to new research published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. At least partially as a consequence of over 1 million Covid-19 deaths, life expectancy in the U.S. has declined significantly over the past few years, falling from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 in 2020 and 76.1 in 2022 — undoing over two decades of progress.
STAT
NOVEMBER 13, 2023
A small and preliminary study published Monday seems to indicate that patients receiving the drug Paxlovid are far more likely to experience Covid rebound than those who did not take it. That conclusion runs counter to previous statements by Pfizer, which makes Paxlovid, and by researchers at the Food and Drug Administration who have argued that while it is not uncommon for people with Covid to have symptoms reemerge after they seem to have recovered, it is not clear that Paxlovid increases the
STAT
DECEMBER 20, 2023
WASHINGTON — The patient had already made the agonizing decision to start chemotherapy to address her colon cancer, even though she was 30 weeks pregnant. Within a day, the decisions got harder: her colon perforated, and the pain was excruciating. She would need urgent surgery — and she would have to undergo an emergency C-section immediately.
STAT
NOVEMBER 11, 2023
PHILADELPHIA — Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Wegovy notably cut the risk of heart attacks in a landmark cardiovascular trial that affirms the treatment offers health benefits beyond weight loss. The company in August had announced that in this trial, called Select, Wegovy reduced the overall rate of major heart problems — heart attacks, stroke, or cardiovascular-related death — by 20%.
STAT
NOVEMBER 15, 2023
The Food and Drug Administration granted marketing approval to a home test for chlamydia and gonorrhea on Wednesday, the first such authorization of a home test to detect the two most common sexually transmitted infections in this country. The marketing approval was granted to LetsGetChecked’s Simple 2 Test, which allows individuals to collect a sample at home that is then submitted to a laboratory for processing.
STAT
NOVEMBER 10, 2023
Pharmacies were once abundant in the South Side of Chicago. Now, residents living in the majority Black neighborhood often find themselves with few options when it’s time to get a prescription refilled or stock up on cold medicine. Ladell Johnson, a longtime resident of the South Side, drives half an hour from her house to the downtown area every time she needs to pick up her prescription.
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