First Edition: January 29, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Man Faints After Flu Shot, Gets Stuck With $4,700 Hospital Bill
Matt Gleason had skipped getting a flu shot for more than a decade. But after suffering a nasty bout of the virus last winter, he decided to get vaccinated at his Charlotte, N.C., workplace in October. “It was super easy and free,” said Gleason, 39, a sales operations analyst. That is, until Gleason fainted five minutes after getting the shot. Though he came to quickly and had a history of fainting, his colleague called 911. And when the paramedics sat him up, he began vomiting. That symptom worried him enough to agree to go to the hospital in an ambulance. (Galewitz, 1/28)
Kaiser Health News:
Community Hospitals Link Arms With Prestigious Facilities To Raise Their Profiles
After seven years of a vigorous fight, Jim Hart worried he was running out of options. Diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 60, Hart had undergone virtually every treatment — surgery, radiation and hormones — to eradicate it. But a blood test showed that his level of prostate-specific antigen, which should have been undetectable, kept rising ominously. And doctors couldn’t determine where the residual cancer was lurking. (Boodman, 1/29)
CNN:
Harris Backs 'Medicare For All' And Eliminating Private Insurance As We Know It
California Sen. Kamala Harris fully embraced "Medicare-for-all" single payer health insurance at a CNN town hall Monday and said she's willing to end private insurance to make it happen. "We need to have Medicare-for-all," Harris told a questioner in the audience, noting it's something she feels "very strongly" about. When pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper if that means eliminating private insurance, the senator answered affirmatively, saying she would be OK with cutting insurers out of the mix. She also accused them of thinking only of their bottom lines and of burdening Americans with paperwork and approval processes. (Luhby and Krieg, 1/29)
Stat:
A Year After Trump Touted Right To Try, Patients Still Aren't Getting Treatment
Patients and family members like Frank and Marilyn [Mongiello] — a half dozen of whom spoke to STAT — described making dozens of unreturned calls to drug makers, outlining plans to pitch the companies on how right to try could be good for business, and even trolling Food and Drug Administration Twitter accounts hoping to drum up some help getting access. Their failures so far underscore just how many questions remain: Did the [right-to-try] law change anything, or did it just give patients false hope? Were the detractors who made such critiques right all along? (Florko, 1/29)
Stat:
AstraZeneca Strikes 'Novel' Deal With A Medicare Plan To Lower Patient Costs
In what is being called a novel bid to lower medicine costs, a drug maker has agreed to adjust the discounts that a Medicare Part D plan will receive for a treatment based on how patients respond — and the deal automatically lowers out-of-pocket costs for patients, as well. In this instance, the UPMC Health plan will pay less for an AstraZeneca (AZN) blood thinner known as Brilinta, which is given to patients who suffered a heart attack, if it fails to prevent another attack over 12 months. Conversely, the health plan pays more if Brilinta works. At the same time, the patient copay will drop to $10, from around $45, for a month’s supply, bringing the cost closer to a generic version of a rival medicine. (Silverman, 1/28)
Bloomberg:
Pharma Stocks In Focus As Congress Kicks Off Drug Cost Hearings
Watch pharmaceutical stocks on Tuesday as the new Congress kicks off its first hearings on drug pricing this year. The two meetings, by the House Oversight and Senate Finance committees, will both focus on the impact of rising drug prices, and lawmakers are expected to make their case for more direct government involvement in pricing decisions for Medicare and allowing Americans to import certain drugs from Canada for personal use. (Darie, 1/28)
Stat:
Vertex Faces More Pressure Over Pricing, But One Analyst Expects No Movement
As a protracted battle between Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) and the U.K. drags on over pricing for cystic fibrosis drugs, a coalition of families, patient advocates, academics, and physicians from more than a dozen countries are urging the company to lower its prices and widen access to “desperate patients.” In an open letter to Vertex chief executive Jeffrey Leiden, the ad hoc group praised the company for “inspirational science and dedication,” but also chastised the drug maker for not doing more to ensure its medicines reach every potential patient. (Silverman, 1/28)
Bloomberg:
Insys Founder Tries To Shift Blame To Underlings In Opioid Trial
Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor didn’t know underlings were cutting side deals with doctors who got fees for writing prescriptions of his company’s opioid-based painkiller, his lawyer told a Boston jury at the start of his racketeering trial. Alec Burlakoff, a former Insys sales executive, sought to block Kapoor from reviewing payments to doctors who wrote prescriptions for the Subsys painkiller so the manager could have “free rein’’ over the project, Beth Wilkinson, Kapoor’s lawyer, said Monday in her opening statement. (Feeley, Lawrence and Griffin, 1/28)
ABC News:
Trial Begins For Pharma Exec Accused Of Using 'Bribes And Fraud' To Sell Fentanyl
Kapoor, the billionaire founder of the Arizona-based company Insys Therapeutics Inc., has entered a plea of not guilty. Kapoor, along with six other Insys executives, is facing charges relating to racketeering, mail fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. (Katersky, 1/28)
Reuters:
'Greed' Fueled Insys Founder's Opioid Bribe Scheme: Prosecutor
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lazarus told a Boston federal jury at the trial’s start that Kapoor oversaw the bribing of doctors who were paid to act as speakers at poorly-attended sham events at restaurants ostensibly meant to educate clinicians about its product, Subsys. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only approved Subsys as a treatment for severe cancer pain. Yet Lazarus said doctors who took bribes often prescribed Subsys to patients without cancer, creating higher sales. “This is a case about greed, about greed and its consequences, the consequences of putting profits over people,” Lazarus said in his opening statement. (Raymond, 1/28)
The Associated Press:
Prosecutor: Drug Company Founder Motivated By 'Greed' In Fentanyl Bribery Scheme
Kapoor is the highest-level pharmaceutical figure to face trial amid the opioid epidemic that's claiming thousands of lives every year. His lawyers say Insys is not responsible for the drug crisis, noting that its medication makes up a small fraction of the prescription opioid market. (1/28)
CNN:
Sackler Family, Members Of Purdue Pharma Accused Of Profiting From The Opioid Crisis
A court ruling Monday in Massachusetts will expose details about one of America's richest families and their connection to the nation's opioid crisis. The Sacklers and members of their company Purdue Pharma have been named in a lawsuit that accuses them of profiting from the opioid crisis by aggressively marketing OxyContin, claims denied by attorneys for the family and Purdue. The suit had been heavily redacted, but on Monday, Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders ruled that the unredacted amended complaint must be publicly released by February 1. (Marco, 1/29)
Stat:
Judge Orders Full Release Of Redacted Lawsuit Against Purdue
The complete document could shed light on decisions made by Purdue’s board and how much money company executives made. The decision from Judge Janet Sanders in Suffolk County Superior Court came in response to a motion filed by media organizations, including STAT and the Boston Globe, to release the full lawsuit, which was originally filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in June. (Joseph, 1/28)
The Associated Press:
Officials Urge Vaccinations Amid Northwest Measles Outbreak
Public health officials scrambling to contain a measles outbreak in the U.S. Northwest warned people to vaccinate their children Monday and worried that it could take months to contain the highly contagious viral illness due to a lower-than-normal vaccination rate at the epicenter of the crisis. The outbreak near Portland has sickened 35 people in Oregon and Washington since Jan. 1, with 11 more cases suspected. Most of the patients are children under 10, and one child has been hospitalized. (Flaccus, 1/28)
CNN:
The Most Common Questions About Measles, Answered
Measles, the highly contagious and previously eliminated viral illness, has been spreading in communities across the United States in recent weeks, with Washington declaring a state of emergency last week and New York reporting in 2018 its second largest outbreak over the past two decades. As the cases increase in these communities, we sit down with Dr. Julia S. Sammons, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and medical director of the Department of Infection Prevention and Control at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, to talk about some of the most common questions about the illness. (Bracho-Sanchez, 1/28)
The Associated Press:
Doc, Hospital Face 8 Wrongful Death Suits Over Drug Dosages
A woman died at an Ohio hospital minutes after receiving not one but two excessive doses of potentially lethal medication ordered by a doctor under investigation in connection with dozens of deaths , the woman's family alleged Monday. Their lawsuit over the May 2015 death of 85-year-old Norma Welch was one of two filed Monday against the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System and Dr. William Husel, the families' attorneys said. (Franko, 1/28)
The Washington Post:
D.C. Opioid Crisis: Dozens Criticize City Response At Council Hearing
D.C. lawmakers, public health experts, doctors and addiction treatment providers forcefully criticized the city’s efforts to address an explosion in fatal opioid overdoses, saying at a D.C. Council hearing Monday that city officials failed to heed best practices and haven’t adequately fixed their strategy. The joint hearing by the council’s health and judiciary committees served as a cathartic moment for advocates and medical professionals who bemoaned what they described as years of missed opportunities to save lives. Early in the hearing, council member and judiciary committee chairman Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) encouraged people to air their complaints. (Jamison, 1/28)
Reuters:
Apple Watch, Using Aetna Client Data, Wants To Help You Be Healthy
CVS Health Corp's health insurer Aetna on Tuesday said it is working with Apple Inc on a new health app for Apple Watches that uses an individual's medical history to set personalized health goals. Called "Attain," the Apple Watch app will reward Aetna customers for meeting activity goals and fulfilling recommended tasks, such as getting vaccinations or refilling medications, with a subsidy toward the cost of an Apple Watch or gift cards for U.S. retailers. (1/29)
The New York Times:
Study Offers Hint Of Hope For Staving Off Dementia In Some People
In dementia research, so many paths have led nowhere that any glimmer of optimism is noteworthy. So some experts are heralding the results of a large new study, which found that people with hypertension who received intensive treatment to lower their blood pressure were less likely than those receiving standard blood pressure treatment to develop minor memory and thinking problems that often progress to dementia. (Belluck, 1/28)
The New York Times:
Germs In Your Gut Are Talking To Your Brain. Scientists Want To Know What They’re Saying.
In 2014 John Cryan, a professor at University College Cork in Ireland, attended a meeting in California about Alzheimer’s disease. He wasn’t an expert on dementia. Instead, he studied the microbiome, the trillions of microbes inside the healthy human body. Dr. Cryan and other scientists were beginning to find hints that these microbes could influence the brain and behavior. Perhaps, he told the scientific gathering, the microbiome has a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. (Zimmer, 1/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Transplant Surgeon Needed A New Heart—Even If It Had Hepatitis C
Robert Montgomery is passed out, asleep on a gurney in a hospital gown. He’s just had a heart biopsy, his seventh since a heart transplant he received here at NYU Langone Health three months earlier. Dr. Montgomery isn’t just any patient. He is the director of NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute. And he didn’t receive just any heart transplant. It was from a heroin user who died of a drug overdose and had hepatitis C, a disease Dr. Montgomery subsequently contracted and has already recovered from. (Reddy, 1/28)
The Associated Press:
US Nobelist Was Told Of Gene-Edited Babies
Long before the claim of the world's first gene-edited babies became public, Chinese researcher He Jiankui shared the news with a U.S. Nobel laureate who objected to the experiment yet remained an adviser to He's biotech company. The revelation that another prominent scientist knew of the work, which was widely condemned when it was revealed, comes as scientists debate whether and how to alert troubling research, and the need for clearer guidelines. (1/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Obesity, Climate Change And Hunger Must Be Fought As One, Health Experts Declare
Maybe, when it comes to finding a way out of a global crisis of obesity, we’re just thinking too small. Maybe the steps needed to reverse a pandemic of unhealthy weight gain are the same as those needed to solve two other crises of human health: malnutrition and climate change. So instead of trying to tackle each of these problems individually, public health experts recommend that we lash the three together. (Healy, 1/28)
The New York Times:
Which Allergens Are In Your Food? You Can’t Always Tell From The Labels
When you’re shopping for someone who has a food allergy, a trip to the grocery store is like a police investigation. Each product must be scrutinized. Labels are examined, each ingredient studied. My 5-year-old son, Alexander, is allergic to almonds and hazelnuts, so my wife and I spend a lot of time trying to decipher food labels. If you miss something, even one word, you risk an allergic reaction. Although federal law requires manufacturers to include allergen warnings on prepackaged foods, it’s not always clear which products contain allergens and which do not. (Athas, 1/28)
The New York Times:
Fighting The Stigma Of Mental Illness Through Music
When Ronald Braunstein conducts an orchestra, there’s no sign of his bipolar disorder. He’s confident and happy. Music isn’t his only medicine, but its healing power is potent. Scientific research has shown that music helps fight depression, lower blood pressure and reduce pain. The National Institutes of Health has a partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts called Sound Health: Music and the Mind, to expand on the links between music and mental health. It explores how listening to, performing or creating music involves brain circuitry that can be harnessed to improve health and well-being. (Hollow, 1/29)
CNN:
More Screen Time For Toddlers Is Tied To Poorer Development A Few Years Later, Study Says
Among toddlers, spending a lot of time staring at screens is linked with poorer performance on developmental screening tests later in childhood, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics on Monday, found a direct association between screen time at ages 2 and 3 and development at 3 and 5. Development includes growth in communication, motor skills, problem-solving and personal social skills, based on a screening tool called the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. Signs of such development can be seen in behaviors like being able to stack a small block or toy on top of another one. (Howard, 1/28)
The New York Times:
Why It Hurts To Lose Sleep
Veteran insomniacs know in their bones what science has to say about sleep deprivation and pain: that the two travel together, one fueling the other. For instance, people who develop chronic pain often lose the ability to sleep well, and quickly point to a bad back, sciatica or arthritis as the reason. The loss of sleep, in turn, can make a bad back feel worse, and the next night’s slumber even more difficult. (Carey, 1/28)
The New York Times:
Seeking Superpowers In The Axolotl Genome
The axolotl, sometimes called the Mexican walking fish, is a cheerful tube sock with four legs, a crown of feathery gills and a long, tapered tail fin. It can be pale pink, golden, gray or black, speckled or not, with a countenance resembling the “slightly smiling face” emoji. Unusual among amphibians for not undergoing metamorphosis, it reaches sexual maturity and spends its life as a giant tadpole baby. (Yin, 1/29)
Los Angeles Times:
Waterproof Workout Patch Studies A Surprising Source Of Info: Your Sweat
Elite athletes must listen carefully to their bodies during workouts and competition. Their muscles. Heart rate. And, sometime soon, maybe even their sweat. Scientists have created a soft, bandage-like device that collects and analyzes an athlete’s perspiration as they run, bike and even swim underwater. The sweat sensor, which researchers recently described in the journal Science Advances, could prompt its wearer to replenish fluids and electrolytes lost during a workout. (Greene, 1/28)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Doctor In Trouble After Prescribing Marijuana To 4-Year-Old
A Hollywood physician could lose his medical license after recommending that a father give his 4-year-old son marijuana cookies to control temper tantrums, according to California’s medical board. Dr. William Eidelman, a natural medicine physician, improperly diagnosed the boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder before recommending marijuana as the treatment, the medical board said in a decision announced last month. (Karlamangla, 1/28)