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Monday, March 12, 2018
[Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking]
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Good morning, folks! I'm here to get you ahead of the day's news in science and medicine.
The House is set to vote on a 'right-to-try' bill
The House is gearing up for a vote Tuesday on “right-to-try” legislation. Late Friday night, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) rolled out a new bill that would expand access to experimental therapies for the terminally ill. The measure shares some similarities with a bill that passed the Senate last fall — both measures include liability protections for drug companies and providers who use the process.
But the new bill would limit the right-to-try process to patients who are likely to die “within a matter of months” or “severely premature.” And it would give the FDA, which has an existing process for helping patients get access to unapproved therapies, more oversight than the Senate bill proposed. It’s still not clear, though, whether the legislation will garner enough support to pass the House. More from STAT’s Erin Mershon here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=f5c819cdc9&e=4aad33fd68>.
Equipment failure at California fertility clinic could impact hundreds of patients
A storage tank housing thousands of eggs and embryos at a San Francisco fertility clinic has failed, the Washington Post reports<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=6bfb276f59&e=4aad33fd68>. The news comes on the heels of a similar incident at a fertility clinic in Cleveland earlier this month, where a liquid nitrogen storage tank holding more than 2,000 eggs and embryos also failed. It's not clear yet how many embryos and eggs are damaged and how many might still be viable. But the incidents could be a significant emotional and financial hit to patients. Many women freeze their eggs while trying to become pregnant or in case of infertility later in life, and the process can cost thousands of dollars. The two clinics are now trying to figure out what went wrong with the equipment.
Tackling infectious diseases caused by the opioid crisis
Public health experts are gathering today to talk about how the opioid epidemic, and in particular injected drug use, is driving infectious diseases such as HIV and viral hepatitis. A prime example: hepatitis B, which declined for decades and then plateaued, only to see new infections grow by roughly 20 percent between 2014 and 2015. This week’s workshop <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=00eeafcfcb&e=4aad33fd68> — which is being put on by the National Academies — will scour for solutions. On the agenda: addiction treatment in prisons, the unique challenges of treatment in rural areas, and the role local public health departments can play in preventing infectious disease.
Sponsor content by The Readout LOUD
Tune into STAT’s new biotech podcast, “The Readout LOUD”
STAT invites you to tune into a new, weekly biotech podcast — “The Readout
LOUD” — featuring Adam Feuerstein, Rebecca Robbins, and Damian Garde. Listen each week for a rundown of biotech news, as well as conversations with the reporters and editors behind the headlines. Tune in on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or Google Play<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=39f2c30545&e=4aad33fd68> today.
Inside STAT<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=66192f9fb8&e=4aad33fd68>: How a slaughterhouse keeps premature babies alive
[87396691-e5ca-4560-8a09-e04a5b7a5bdb.png]<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=4dcfc9a5cb&e=4aad33fd68>
(eros dervishi for stat)
Every week, foam extractors make the trip to an Ontario slaughterhouse to siphon an off-white liquid out of cow lungs. The foam is purified and shipped across the globe, where it is shot into the lungs of struggling premature infants. Their lungs, like the rest of a premature infant's body, aren't quite ready for birth and haven't started producing this foam, called pulmonary surfactant, themselves. Experts say arrival of surfactants in the neonatal ICU in the 1980s was a groundbreaking development. STAT's Eric Boodman visited a slaughterhouse in Canada to trace how surfactant goes from the roar of the slaughterhouse to the sterile hush of the NICU. Read his special report here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2d298115aa&e=4aad33fd68>.
Trump says U.S. should consider death penalty for drug dealers
President Trump praised countries that impose the death penalty or life sentences for drug dealers at a rally this weekend and said the U.S. should consider a similar policy. Here’s your rundown:
§ Trump’s argument: Shooting and killing a person can be punished by death, but a person can "kill 5,000 people with drugs because you're smuggling them in and you're making a lot of money and people are dying" and not face the same kind of punishment.
§ The backlash: The remarks sparked swift criticism, including a slew of comments on Twitter about whether Trump would take the same approach against the drug companies that produce and market potent painkillers.
§ What it might mean: The Washington Post reports <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=b01dfe3edc&e=4aad33fd68> the Trump administration is studying the possibility of enacting a policy that would permit prosecutors to seek the death penalty for drug dealers.
This cholesterol drug also cuts the risk of death
The cholesterol drug Praluent can also cut a patient’s risk of death, according to results released<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=49b303e17b&e=4aad33fd68> at a cardiology conference this weekend. In a three-year study of 18,000 high-risk patients, patients taking Praluent were 15 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke or to be hospitalized than patients taking a placebo. That’s welcome news for the drug’s makers, Regeneron and Sanofi. Doctors have been hesitant to prescribe Praluent, which had a list price of more than $14,000 a year, and payers were reluctant to shell out that much for a drug that might not cut costs. The drug's makers now say they'd be willing to charge less for Praluent if insurers eased the barriers to access the drug.
What to read around the web today
§ Museums fight the isolation and pain of dementia. New York Times<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=d8fa4d9d40&e=4aad33fd68>
§ Many women come close to death in childbirth. NPR<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=6ab0a7acd8&e=4aad33fd68>
§ The more opioids doctors prescribe, the more money they make. CNN<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=50ca8543ee&e=4aad33fd68>
More reads from STAT
§ Martin Shkreli has been sentenced. The drug industry is trying to get away scot-free<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=4850ae01d3&e=4aad33fd68>.
§ A costly PBM trick: set lower copays for expensive brand-name drugs <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=53bac470a5&e=4aad33fd68> than for generics.
The latest from STAT Plus
§ McCaskill plans a bill to force pharma to disclose payments<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=cb5d497413&e=4aad33fd68> to nonprofits and advocacy groups.
Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
[Megan]
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