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Wednesday, January 31, 2018
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Good morning, everyone! I'm here to get you ahead of the day's news in science and medicine.
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Trump endorses ‘right to try’ for terminally ill patients
In last night's State of the Union speech, President Trump
praised Congress's efforts to pass a bill that would allow patients with terminal conditions to access experimental treatments. The so-called "right-to-try" bill was passed by the Senate last fall, but the effort has since
stalled in the House. "People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure — I want to give them a chance right here at home," Trump said. The FDA has a pathway to grant some patients with terminal illness access to experimental
treatments, and 30 states
already have right-to-try laws in place.
The president also used his speech to say he's working with his administration to address "the injustice of high drug prices" and to combat the opioid crisis.
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CDC director invested in tobacco industry after taking office
CDC director Brenda Fitzgerald bought shares in a tobacco company just a month after she took the helm of an agency tasked with cutting tobacco use, Politico reports. The stock in Japan Tobacco was one
of roughly a dozen investments that the CDC director made while in her new role. Fitzgerald has already come under fire for not divesting quickly enough from other investments that might cause a conflict of interest. Now, she's being criticized for investing
in the tobacco industry while making tobacco cessation a pillar of her public health career. An HHS spokesperson said the purchases were handled by Fitzgerald’s financial manager and have since been sold.
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FEMA is ending food and water aid for Puerto Rico today
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is wrapping up its work to provide food and water to residents of Puerto Rico today. In the four months since Hurricane Maria devastated the island, the agency has
provided clean water and meals to residents. The agency tells NPR
it’s planning to transition to long-term recovery efforts. Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson swiftly
criticized the decision, arguing that some of the island’s residents are still without power or clean water. "It is the responsibility of the United States," Rubio said on the Senate floor yesterday. "These are American
citizens."
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Sponsor content by MilliporeSigma
Genome editing's exciting future
The race is on in the field of genome editing — not only to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases, but also to decide crucial questions regarding ownership of individual genome sequences. "It's
an exciting future ahead of us," one researcher said. Read more
here.
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Would doctors provide physician-assisted death to their patients?
(hyacinth empinado / stat)
The medical community is divided over the ethics of physician-assisted death — a debate that’s echoed by two pieces on STAT this morning on
either side of
the spectrum. We teamed up with our partners at Figure 1, a social media app for health providers, to ask doctors whether they’d offer medical aid in dying to their patients if their states explicitly allowed it. Here's
what they said:
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“No, I would not. I’m not opposed to the idea in itself in end-stage disease, but as a physician it should not be my task to provide this … For me,
it blunts the boundaries and is a dangerous path to walk down.” — Emergency medicine resident
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“The key word is ‘end-stage.’ If all parameters indicate little if no chance of recovery, all factors have to be considered.
These are among the most difficult decisions in medicine. I don’t know what the right answer is.” — Cardiac surgeon
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“My job as a doctor is to heal people, and failing that, to relieve their suffering. Sometimes, we can't relieve suffering for a terminal patient. In those
circumstances, the patient may choose to exit life on their own terms. I would choose to respect that, and to be there for them until the end.” — Medical student
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Inside STAT: Biopharma
bets on pain drugs with a checkered past
A new class of pain medicines, called NGF inhibitors, once looked like a $10 billion idea that could help wean the world off its opioid dependence. But then patients in clinical trials started inexplicably
blowing out their joints, and the FDA put a halt to further studies in 2010. The once-promising drugs suddenly looked like costly scientific mistakes. After years of research and perseverance, a handful of biopharma companies believe they’ve found a safe way
to relieve pain with NGF inhibitors. Now, they’re pressing through late-stage trials to see whether the old drugs can finally score FDA approval and provide a much-needed alternative to opioids. STAT’s Damian Garde has the story — read
here.
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Amazon's health care ‘disruption’ raises questions
When
news broke yesterday that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase are forming an independent health care company for their employees, headlines hailed the idea as a way to “disrupt” health care. But many health
care experts were
far more skeptical — noting the lack of details and the fact that the history of the health care industry is littered with similar failed pledges. “I do hope Amazon, JP Morgan, & Berkshire succeed. Health care is wildly
inefficient,” Yale health economist Zack Cooper
said on Twitter. “However, it’s a bit like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Partners Health coming out and saying they don’t like their computers so they’re going to form a new IT company.”
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What to read around the web today
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This company wants to democratize clinical trials with artificial intelligence.
Wired
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The new language of science under Trump, explained.
Vox
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To stem abuse of anti-diarrhea drugs, FDA officials seek packaging fix.
Associated Press
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Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
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