Maine OKs Medicaid expansion, mislabeled marijuana products, & Ohio drug price measure flops

Maine votes to expand Medicaid, Ohio rejects drug price proposal

Maine voters have voted to expand Medicaid to low-income adults, becoming the first state to do so through a referendum. The state's Republican governor vetoed Medicaid expansion five times. The referendum was seen as a an indicator for public support of the ACA — and now that it's passed, could galvanize support for similar votes in the 18 other states where Republican lawmakers have chosen not to expand Medicaid.

And in Ohio, a measure to rein in drug prices has flopped after an expensive ballot fight. The drug industry spent more than $40 million in the last four months alone funding an opposition campaign to the measure, which would have stopped state agencies from paying higher prices for drugs than the prices paid by the VA. The dueling campaigns seemed to cause confusion — some voters told STAT's Casey Ross they weren't clear on the proposal's impacts on consumers and didn’t feel comfortable supporting it.

Many marijuana-based products aren't labeled correctly

A new study finds the bulk of cannabidiol products sold online aren’t labeled with the right concentration. There’s been interest in the potential medicinal benefits of cannabidiol, a compound found in marijuana plants, but it’s currently classified as a Schedule 1, controlled substance. That means people looking to purchase cannabidiol do so online, where the market is wildly unregulated. Researchers bought and tested 84 cannabidiol products sold online and found that 42 percent actually contained a higher cannabidiol concentration than their labels indicated, while 26 percent contained lower levels. And while it’s not clear what consuming too much of the compound might do, the study suggests patients looking to use cannabidiol for medicinal purposes aren’t getting the doses they think they are.

Fat cells make this chemo drug less effective

As if it weren’t bad enough that obesity increases the risk of developing several forms of cancer, it also reduces the chance of surviving breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancers — and new research uncovers one reason why. Researchers found that fat cells absorb the chemotherapy drug daunorubicin — used to treat several forms of leukemia and neuroblastoma — and also change its molecular structure so it’s less toxic to leukemia cells. It's the first study showing “that adipocytes [fat cells] metabolize and inactivate a therapeutic drug,” says Dr. Steven Mittelman of UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. When he and colleagues added the drug to human cancer cells mixed with fat cells, the amount of drug in the leukemia cells fell by about two-thirds compared to when adipocytes weren’t around. Mittelman says that's because adipocytes both removed the drug from the leukemia microenvironment and metabolized it into an innocuous form.

Research explores potential of personalized medicine in rheumatoid arthritis, other autoimmune diseases

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes joint pain, stiffness and swelling, making early diagnosis and treatment to help slow its progression and irreversible damage critical. However, the disease can present and progress very differently in different patients. New research is exploring disease progression and treatment response in patients who exhibit key biomarkers of highly active, progressive RA. Learn more about how these studies are advancing the potential for personalized autoimmune disease treatment.

Inside STAT: Foreign health groups cut services after White House decision

Melvine Ouyo is clinic director at Family Health Options Kenya. (LISA SHANNON)

Melvine Ouyo works at Family Health Options Kenya, a sexual and reproductive health clinic in Nairobi which has provided free health care for the past three years in one of the city's poorest areas. That care, which ranges from family planning to malaria treatment, has been supported in part by money from the U.S. government. Last week, she traveled to the U.S. to make an appeal to lawmakers: Don't cut off our funding. The clinic has cut its budget for next year in half due to a memorandum President Trump signed at the end of January prohibiting foreign organizations that provide or promote abortion from receiving health funding from the United States government. STAT's Ike Swetlitz has more here.

IUDs tied to lower cervical cancer rates

Intrauterine devices are more than 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy, and a new analysis suggests they’re also tied to a lower risk of cervical cancer. University of Southern California researchers reviewed evidence from 16 observational studies that included data from more than 12,000 women and found that cervical cancer rates were one-third lower among women who used an IUD than their peers who didn’t. The study was observational, so it doesn’t show cause and effect, and researchers say they don’t yet understand how IUDs might be protecting against cervical cancer.

The finding comes as cervical cancer rates continue to rise: 528,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide in 2012. That number is expected to rise to more than 765,000 women by 2035, according to the WHO. The cancer hits developing countries — where cancer screenings might be infrequent or access to the HPV vaccine might be limited — particularly hard.

Eyeing a way to boost prescription drug competition

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is headed to the Federal Trade Commission today to talk about how to drum up competition in the prescription drug market, promote cheaper alternatives like generics, and, in turn, get prices down. Today's meeting will focus on two types of businesses that operate as middlemen: pharmacy benefit managers, which negotiate drug costs for insurance companies, and group purchasing organizations, which negotiate drug costs for pharmacies. It sounds wonky — and it is — but the businesses play a huge part in the drug prices that get passed down to consumers.