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The world’s biggest drug makers and their trade groups have cut checks to 356 lawmakers ahead of this year’s election — more than two-thirds of the sitting members of Congress, according to a new STAT analysis. It’s a barrage of contributions that accounts for roughly $11 million in campaign giving, distributed via roughly 4,500 checks from the political action committees affiliated with the companies. (Bartley and Facher, 8/10)

Most companies don’t have a chief medical officer, but more are exploring their options as they seek health expertise. Traditionally, companies with CMOs tended to be health-care or pharmaceutical companies or big hospital systems, where medical chiefs manage teams of doctors and researchers and help with product development. Aslan Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Selecta Biosciences Inc., for instance, named new CMOs this month. (Thomas, 8/10)

Pfizer Inc said on Friday it signed a multiyear agreement to make COVID-19 treatment remdesivir for developer Gilead Sciences Inc, which is under pressure to increase tight supplies of the antiviral drug. Gilead is aiming to make enough of the drug by the end of the year to treat more than 2 million COVID-19 patients, and agreed to send nearly all of its remdesivir supply to the United States through September. (8/7)

Kaiser Health News: Business Is Booming For Dialysis Giant Fresenius. It Took A $137M Bailout Anyway. 

As the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed most nonemergency medical practices this spring, the dialysis business, vital to the survival of patients with kidney disease, rolled ahead and in some cases grew. Yet when the Trump administration sent billions in federal relief funds to medical organizations, at least $259 million went to dialysis providers, a KHN analysis of federal records found. Of that, kidney care behemoth Fresenius Medical Care accepted more than half, at least $137 million, despite acknowledging it had ample financial resources, the analysis showed. (Rau and Pradhan, 8/10)

After two years of wrangling, AbbVie (ABBV) agreed to pay $24 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the California insurance commissioner, who accused the drug maker of paying kickbacks to doctors and using a stealthy network of nurses to illegally boost prescriptions of its best-selling Humira treatment. Over a five-year period, the drug maker offered physicians a familiar menu of tempting items, from cash, meals, and drinks, to gifts and trips, along with patient referrals, in hopes they would write more prescriptions for the rheumatoid arthritis medicine, according to the lawsuit. Humira is a franchise product for AbbVie and last year generated $14.8 billion in sales in the U.S. alone. (Silverman, 8/7)

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a variant of the anesthetic and party drug ketamine for suicidal patients with major depression. The drug is a nasal spray called Spravato and it contains esketamine, a chemical cousin of ketamine. (Hamilton, 8/7)

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first oral therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, a rare and often devastating disease, adding a new option for patients who now rely on costly injected treatments. The drug, from partners Genentech and PTC Therapeutics, is approved for adults and children with SMA, regardless of the severity of their disease. The once-a-day treatment will compete with a one-time gene therapy from Novartis and a drug from Biogen that is injected into the spine every four months. (Garde, 8/7)

The FDA is keeping its biologics labs shuttered far longer than other government research labs, according to internal FDA documents obtained by STAT. FDA officials told staff last month that it will keep the labs, which research ways to improve the safety of existing vaccines and gene therapies, closed until there are fewer than 10 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the counties surrounding the agency’s White Oak, Md., campus. Currently, just 16 states meet that metric. (Florko, 8/10)

The Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review a marketing application submitted by Biogen for aducanumab, its treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the company announced Friday. The aducanumab application was granted priority review, which means the FDA will render an approval decision no later than March 7, 2021. According to Biogen, the FDA “plans to act early” if possible on the application, and that an advisory committee will be scheduled so that outside experts can review the aducanumab data. A date for that meeting has not yet been set. (Feuerstein, 8/7)