Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Despite mRNA Advances, An HIV Vaccine Is Still Far Off
The use of messenger RNA to make vaccines for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic has reinvigorated a decades-long hunt for a shot to safeguard against HIV, but the development process will still be a protracted one, according to a leading South African scientist.聽(Cohen, 9/14)
In other pharmaceutical industry news 鈥
Philip Morris International Inc (PM.N) said on Wednesday it had appointed two former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials to key positions at a time when tobacco companies have come under intense regulatory and public scrutiny. (9/14)
A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Wednesday said he has received threats related to the bankruptcy of a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary he is overseeing, with some messages suggesting that the case is an effort to "cover up" harms allegedly caused by J&J's talc products. Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey said at a hearing that he and his staff have been getting angry and menacing messages through phone calls, voicemails, emails and social media posts since his February decision not to dismiss the bankruptcy case of LTL Management LLC. (Knauth, 9/14)
A host of health tech startups and companies are advertising their apps and platforms as key solutions to improving diversity in clinical trials, promising to help researchers improve their outreach, enrollment, and retention 鈥 what one researcher calls a 鈥渕odern-day gold rush.鈥 (Castillo, 9/15)