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Wednesday, March 21, 2018
[Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking]
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Welcome to Wednesday, everyone! I'm here to get you ahead of the day's news in science and medicine.
We're still waiting on the big spending bill
Congressional leaders still haven't released a final omnibus spending deal — and since government funding runs out Friday at midnight, the clock is ticking. Lawmakers had hoped to finalize the package sometime yesterday to give lawmakers enough time to consider the language before voting on it.
This week, congressional leaders signaled they'd strip some of the most controversial provisions on the table, including an Obamacare stabilization package. Drug makers are still pushing, though, for Congress to roll back a policy that requires them to pay 70 percent of the prescription costs for seniors stuck in Medicare's “donut hole” coverage gap, as well as for several smaller changes. More on those here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=6cb2681fce&e=4aad33fd68>.
It's possible lawmakers could pass a stopgap spending solution to buy more time. But as the clock runs out, federal employees will once again be making contingency plans for what could be the third government shutdown this year. And that has some serious implications <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=f2e3a26e05&e=4aad33fd68> for federal health agencies like FDA, NIH, and the CDC.
Inside the the anxious launch of a gene therapy with a record sticker price
[https://gallery.mailchimp.com/f8609630ae206654824f897b6/images/bd6c7cde-ec3d-4397-acd3-2771afbe9f81.jpg]<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=92974d60d4&e=4aad33fd68>
13-year-old jack hogan received luxturna in boston this week. (kayana szymczak for stat)
On Sunday, 13-year-old Jack Hogan's parents drove him five hours from New Jersey to Boston in the hope that he might regain some of his vision. He was to be the first person in the U.S. to receive a gene therapy for a rare inherited disease since the treatment, Luxturna, hit the market. Luxturna, which was developed<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=9e838d324d&e=4aad33fd68> by Spark Therapeutics and has an $850,000 price tag<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=9069c8c440&e=4aad33fd68>, involves injecting a virus into the retina to deliver a healthy copy of a gene that's mutated in patients with the condition. STAT’s Eric Boodman followed the process, from getting an insurer to pay for Luxturna to getting the injection done yesterday— read here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=8a7876c3ad&e=4aad33fd68>.
Your health information could end up in a recycling bin
Here’s something concerning to start off your Wednesday morning: Your personal health information could end up in a hospital’s recycling bin, according to a new report in JAMA<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=d24de26704&e=4aad33fd68>.
* The background: Researchers dug through the recycling bins at five hospitals in Toronto, all of which had policies in place to properly get rid of confidential patient health information and shredders to make that happen.
* The findings: The researchers found 2,687 documents with personally identifiable information, most often papers like clinical notes and medical reports tossed out in doctors’ offices. And while the researchers didn’t find any evidence of harm related to those privacy breaches, it’s certainly possible.
* The recommendation: Follow the rules, and stop printing patient records so much.
Judge blocks Mississippi's new abortion ban
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Mississippi’s new ban on abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation, the earliest ban on abortion in the U.S. The state’s only abortion clinic sued shortly after Gov. Phil Bryant signed the law Monday. The clinic argues it's unconstitutional to prohibit abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb. Yesterday, a judge blocked the law while the case plays out in court.
And in Idaho, Gov. C.L. Otter has signed a new law that'll require women who want medical abortions be told they have the option to "reverse" the abortion after the first step of the process, following a handful of other states that've passed similar requirements. Leading medical groups say<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=67870d74f5&e=4aad33fd68> the idea is not supported by science.
Lawmakers tackle a long list of opioid proposals
There's a marathon of a House hearing this morning on the opioid epidemic. Lawmakers are gearing up to discuss a whopping 25 measures on prevention and public health solutions to the crisis. There's a laundry list of leading health experts testifying at today's hearing<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=fa8e5e1517&e=4aad33fd68>, including acting CDC director Anne Schuchat, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, and more than a dozen prominent figures in substance abuse treatment, addiction, and drug policy.
And yesterday, a different House subcommittee pressed<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=b0a5abae8c&e=4aad33fd68> the DEA to answer questions about a single pharmacy in a West Virginia town of 400 that dispensed 1.5 million prescription painkillers in just two years. The pharmacy stayed open for two years after the DEA raided its second location in the town, which then shut down.
The most common cause of death among infants
A new study<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=1d65827602&e=4aad33fd68> finds sudden unexpected death of infants, or SUDI, is the most common cause of death among babies born full-term in the U.S. It’s a sweeping category that includes sudden infant death syndrome, deaths from poorly defined causes, and deaths from abuse or accidents. Researchers analyzed data and found that SUDI accounted for 43 percent of deaths, while congenital malformations accounted for 31 percent. One takeaway: Given how common SUDI is, there’s a need to better educate parents on how to properly put infants to sleep to lower the risk of SIDS and suffocation.
What to read around the web today
* Tuberculosis batters Venezuela, a country in crisis. New York Times<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=5c569bcf27&e=4aad33fd68>
* Taste buds dull as people gain weight. Now, scientists think they know why. NPR<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=da3f348694&e=4aad33fd68>
* Supreme Court hostile to part of California law aimed at 'crisis pregnancy centers.' Politico<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=a7cae48ba3&e=4aad33fd68>
More reads from STAT
* Shortchanging global health<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=f96e641ba7&e=4aad33fd68> now will cost us later.
The latest from STAT Plus
* Former Novartis sales reps will testify they ‘essentially’ bought prescriptions<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=784f028d72&e=4aad33fd68> by wooing doctors.
* Vertex battles with the U.K. over the price of its cystic fibrosis drug<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=f97a19a2da&e=4aad33fd68>.
Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
[Megan]
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