2024

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‘What’s your pain right now?’ Sickle cell, loss, and survival in America

STAT

ST. LOUIS — All morning, nurses had been coming in, taking vitals, offering blankets, pressing buttons to silence alarms. It would stay quiet for a bit, but then the beeping would start again, telling Tammy Clemons over and over that she was back in the emergency room. She wished she were elsewhere. She wished she were with her sister, who’d just had a stillborn baby in a different hospital, three miles away.

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The 2024 PharmaVoice 100

PharmaVoice

This year’s PharmaVoice 100 encompasses the industry’s ongoing revolutions and leaders who are not only navigating these changes, but at times, forging new paths for others to follow.

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Trending Sources

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An RNAi renaissance is creating a new generation of startups

BioPharma Dive

Pioneers like Alnylam Pharmaceuticals have led the RNA interference field for years. Now, a crop of young biotechs is building on that foundation by taking the drugmaking technology in new directions.

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Vizient announces 2024 top performers in clinical quality, supplier diversity and environmental sustainability excellence

vizient

The awards recognize the achievements of participating hospitals and health systems in patient care quality and supply chain excellence and were announced Sept. 17 in Las Vegas.

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From Diagnosis to Delivery: How AI is Revolutionizing the Patient Experience

Speaker: Simran Kaur, Founder & CEO at Tattva Health Inc.

The healthcare landscape is being revolutionized by AI and cutting-edge digital technologies, reshaping how patients receive care and interact with providers. In this webinar led by Simran Kaur, we will explore how AI-driven solutions are enhancing patient communication, improving care quality, and empowering preventive and predictive medicine. You'll also learn how AI is streamlining healthcare processes, helping providers offer more efficient, personalized care and enabling faster, data-driven

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2275 pharmacies have closed so far in 2024

Ramblings of a pharmacist

“It’s not the way I wanted it to go,” he says sadly. “You do what you’re supposed to do. You go to college, get a doctorate, start a small business in a small town, support the community and it’s not even close to being a viable option.” “This isn’t because the community didn’t support us. It’s because we lose money on every prescription we fill.” Those are the words of Tom Wullstein, owner of Brandon Pharmacy.

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Modifier gene therapy – clinical development and manufacturing considerations

European Pharmaceutical Review

Tell us about Ocugen’s lead programme, OCU400. What’s the latest and what’s next? OCU400 is a modifier gene therapy aimed at treating retinitis pigmentosa and Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA). In April 2024, Ocugen received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to initiate the Phase III liMeliGhT clinical trial for OCU400 for retinitis pigmentosa.

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More Trending

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Weight-loss drug firm accused of prioritising profits after halting insulin pen production

The Guardian - Pharmaceutical Industry

Novo Nordisk’s decision will force people in developing countries to use outdated glass vials and syringes, warn campaigners The pharmaceutical company behind injectable weight-loss drugs has been accused of prioritising profits over the health of people in developing countries by halting production of its insulin pens. People living with type 1 diabetes who are reliant on the human insulin produced by Novo Nordisk, will instead be given glass vials and syringes – which they say are inconvenient

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Eisai dials back forecasts for Alzheimer's drug Leqembi

pharmaphorum

Eisai has scaled down its sales expectations for Alzheimer's disease drug Leqembi after sluggish sales growth in the first half of the current fiscal year.

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Novavax seeks FDA approval for updated Covid-19 vaccine

Pharmaceutical Technology

Novavax has sought US FDA approval for an updated JN.1 version of its Covid-19 vaccine, NVX-CoV2705, for individuals aged 12 years and above.

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Survey: 50% of Active Drug Shortages in the United States Persist for 2 or More Years

Pharmacy Times

ASHP investigators determined the severity and impact of ongoing drug shortages, with approximately 99% of respondents reporting that they experienced a shortage.

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Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide

Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.

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STAT+: Schizophrenia drug AbbVie picked up in $9 billion acquisition fails in key trials

STAT

AbbVie said Monday that its experimental treatment for schizophrenia failed to significantly help patients in two trials, a blow to the company, which got the drug through its recent $9 billion acquisition of Cerevel Therapeutics. In Phase 2 studies, patients on different doses of the drug, called emraclidine, did not experience significant improvements on a test called the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) compared with the placebo group.

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On the front lines of the superbug war, new treatments can’t arrive soon enough

PharmaVoice

As antimicrobial resistance rises, researchers are running out of time to fight each new wave of superbugs. And the funding isn’t enough.

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An Alzheimer’s drugmaker is accused of data manipulation. Should its trials be stopped?

BioPharma Dive

An experimental Alzheimer’s therapy from Cassava Sciences is still being tested in two Phase 3 studies, even as the company has come under regulatory scrutiny.

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Bird flu infections in farmworkers are going undetected, study shows

STAT

For months, as human cases of H5N1 bird flu associated with an outbreak of the virus in U.S. dairy cattle have mounted, one question has loomed larger than others: how many human infections are getting missed? Farmworkers face some of the most intense exposure to the bird flu virus, but resistance from farmers and a lack of health insurance and paid sick leave in the industry have limited the amount of testing of workers and hampered public health officials’ ability to track where the vir

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Best Practices to Streamline Compensation Management: A Foundation for Growth

Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson

Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.

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STAT+: AstraZeneca says China has detained a senior executive

STAT

The executive in charge of AstraZeneca operations in China is under detention by Chinese authorities who are investigating employees there, the company said. The disclosure comes after AstraZeneca last week acknowledged that Leon Wang, an executive vice president who also oversees international operations for the drugmaker, was being investigated along with a “small number” of employees.

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Bird flu found in a pig in U.S. for the first time, raising concerns about potential risks to humans

STAT

H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in a pig on a farm in Oregon, the first time the virus has been seen in a pig in the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Wednesday. The pig, one of five on the farm, did not display signs of illness. Two others tested negative and testing is ongoing on the other two. All five were euthanized to allow for study of whether the animals were truly infected.

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STAT+: Private Medicare plans collect billions for care veterans are actually getting from VA 

STAT

One ad shows two older men talking jovially on a front porch, “Vietnam veteran” visible on one of their hats. Another shows an older man in military regalia, arms crossed, smiling proudly at the camera.  Under names like “Patriot Plan,” “Courage MA,” and “Honor” plan, all of the major private Medicare insurers are courting veterans directly, selling plans that their ads say complement their Veterans Affairs coverage with benefits like

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U.S. death from Lassa fever, an Ebola-like virus, is reported in Iowa 

STAT

A person from Iowa who recently returned to the United States from West Africa has died after contracting Lassa fever, a virus that can cause Ebola-like illness in some patients. State health officials reported the case on Monday. “I want to assure Iowans that the risk of transmission is incredibly low in our state. We continue to investigate and monitor this situation and are implementing the necessary public health protocols,” Robert Kruse, state medical director of the Iowa Depa

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Position Your Pharmacy for Expansion

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.

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Tracking the U.S. bird flu outbreak has been hard. It’s about to get harder

STAT

If one can point to anything good about the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle — to be honest, there’s nothing good about this situation — it’s the timing. Transmission of the virus through U.S. dairy herds took off when last winter’s flu season was effectively over, making the job of looking for people infected with H5N1 an easier task in theory, though there have been plenty of human hurdles impeding those efforts.

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STAT+: Patient dies in Beam Therapeutics trial of CRISPR sickle cell treatment

STAT

A patient with sickle cell disease died while participating in a clinical trial of a CRISPR-based treatment from Beam Therapeutics, threatening to overshadow early signals of effective gene editing.  Beam said the patient succumbed to respiratory failure, deemed to be “likely caused” by a regimen of chemotherapy required to prepare the patient for BEAM-101, a treatment that uses the company’s new, more precise form of CRISPR gene editing called base editing.

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Opinion: ‘Do no harm’ is hurting 400 million long Covid patients worldwide

STAT

Imagine, for a moment, that you wake up one morning with a debilitating illness that won’t let go. Weeks and months pass, but the crushing fatigue, constant headaches, and aching muscles remain. You can’t think straight. Simply showering or doing the dishes leaves you floored for days at a time, and the unpredictable symptoms — shortness of breath, dizziness, a racing heart — ebb and flow without warning.

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STAT+: UnitedHealth was top insurer collecting billions in questionable Medicare payments, federal watchdog finds

STAT

A federal watchdog found that Medicare Advantage insurers collected billions of dollars in dubious payments from Medicare in a single year by using home visits and medical chart reviews to diagnose patients with conditions for which they received no follow-up care.    A report released Thursday by the Office of Inspector General for the Health and Human Services Department concluded that insurers collectively received an estimated $7.5 billion in payments last year from so-called

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Enhance Healthcare Efficiency With Top Payroll & HCM Services

Running a healthcare facility requires precision and care, not just for patients but also for your staff. Our guide, "A Buyer’s Guide to Payroll & HCM Services," helps healthcare providers choose the best provider. Efficient payroll management ensures timely, accurate payments, critical for maintaining staff morale and trust. Compliance support helps navigate complex healthcare regulations and avoid costly fines.

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STAT+: The end of 23andMe’s drug discovery dream

STAT

23andMe, the genetics startup that has repeatedly captured the public imagination and then faced nearly fatal business challenges, announced Monday that it would halt its efforts to develop new medicines and lay off 40% of its workforce, focusing instead on selling genetic tests to consumers and using the resulting data for research. In closing its therapeutics division and laying off 200 people, 23andMe ended an audacious bet it made nearly a decade ago — that it could use the genetic da

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STAT+: For the behemoth UnitedHealth, a new threat to Medicare profits

STAT

For the nation’s largest health insurer, the evidence of abuse was stunning and unmistakable: UnitedHealth Group reaped billions from the federal Medicare program by diagnosing patients with serious chronic illnesses, and then delivering no follow-up care. The findings in the federal report reveal that UnitedHealth repeatedly sent clinicians into patients’ homes and pored over their medical charts to add diagnoses for illnesses such as vascular disease, heart failure, and diabetes.

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STAT+: These 7 watchdogs scour scientific papers for problems — and often find them

STAT

Researchers like to say that science is self-correcting, that knowledge is slowly but surely refined by new findings that build on or debunk old ones. But this process is far from perfect and is hampered by sloppy experiments or, in some cases, faked results. A small, tight-knit community of scientific sleuths has been unearthing growing evidence that many studies, including landmark papers published in top journals, contain manipulated images and falsified findings.

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STAT+: Chickenpox, shingles, Alzheimer’s? Evidence mounts for a viral cause of dementia

STAT

Pascal Geldsetzer believes in open access, in disseminating science as quickly as it happens. Even so, last summer, as he uploaded the surprising results of his latest study to the MedRxiv preprint server, the Stanford University epidemiologist was feeling something other than the usual excitement. “I was scared to put this up because it’s such a different approach from what’s generally done in epidemiology and medicine,” he said.

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5 Reasons to Upgrade Your Pharmacy Management Software

Are you still using workarounds to manage your daily operations? To achieve peak performance, it's time to explore other options for specialty and infusion pharmacy software. Streamline pharmacy operations and improve clinical performance with automated processing, real-time data exchange, and electronic decision support. Download this helpful infographic to: Drive efficiency and patient adherence from referral receipt to delivery and ongoing care – all with our Pharmacy Cloud.

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STAT+: These 10 scientists are leading a new generation of gene editors developing CRISPR medicines

STAT

Barely 12 years after the publication of the first papers unveiling CRISPR-Cas9, a powerful enzyme for editing DNA, sickle cell patients are now receiving the first approved CRISPR-based medicine, Casgevy. Hundreds of patients with other inherited diseases, cancers, and chronic bacterial and viral infections are enrolled in clinical trials testing other CRISPR treatments.

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Is it time to freak out about bird flu?

STAT

If you’re aware of the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cattle — you may have seen some headlines or read something on social media — perhaps you are wondering what the fuss is about. Yes, there have been nearly a couple dozen human cases, but all have had mild symptoms. The virus does not decimate herds in the way it does poultry flocks; most — though not all — of the infected cows come through the illness OK.

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STAT+: Inside UnitedHealth’s strategy to pressure physicians: $10,000 bonuses and a doctor leaderboard

STAT

The emails from UnitedHealth Group managers were filled with exclamation marks and pleasantries about the weather. But the underlying message to doctors in late 2020 was persistent and urgent: Hit your targets to see more patients. We need to bring in more money. At the time, deaths from Covid-19 were surging, and no vaccine was available.

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STAT+: Dreams of cancer vaccines are becoming more real. Here are 9 scientists making it happen 

STAT

Vaccines are the original immunotherapy, in the view of Ryan Sullivan, a cancer immunotherapy researcher and oncologist at Mass General Cancer Center. But many other modes of immunotherapy for cancer were approved first — checkpoint blockade drugs like Keytruda and engineered immune cell therapies like Yescarta. Shadowed by the successes of other therapies, the field of cancer vaccines was “seemingly dying,” Sullivan said.

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STAT+: Medicare Advantage insurers ramped up use of technology to deny claims, Senate investigation shows

STAT

The nation’s three largest Medicare Advantage insurers increasingly refused to pay for rehabilitative care for seniors in the years after adopting sophisticated technologies to aid in their coverage decisions, a Senate investigation found. UnitedHealth Group, Humana, and CVS Health targeted denials among older adults who were requesting care in nursing homes, inpatient rehab hospitals, and long-term hospitals.