Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Drug Cost Bill Faces Unpredictable Ride; Long Covid Drug Shows Promise
Senate Democrats will probably start a climactic series of votes on their party-line energy, tax and health care bill this week with very little public indication of where Sen. Kyrsten Sinema stands. They鈥檙e willing to risk it. While all of Washington waits on the Arizona Democrat, her previous treatment of high-profile issues shows she鈥檚 unlikely to make any statement about how she sees the deal written by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer 鈥 at least until it鈥檚 on the floor. If the past is prologue, she鈥檒l also be a wild card on amendments that Republicans may offer in a bid to alter the bill on the Senate floor during votes later this week. (Everett, 8/2)
Democrats' drug pricing plan could end drugmakers' practice of taking out overlapping patents around one drug 鈥 a strategy which fends off competitors but that the industry argues incentivizes innovation after a drug is approved. (Owens, 8/3)
And in developments from the pharmaceutical industry 鈥
One of the first trials aimed at tackling long COVID helped some patients recover from lingering physical and mental fatigue, although the drug developed by Axcella Health Inc (AXLA.O) failed on the small study's main goal of restoring the normal function of mitochondria - the energy factories of cells. (Steenhuysen, 8/2)
More than half of high-risk SARS-CoV-2 Omicron inpatients or outpatients given the monoclonal antibody sotrovimab rapidly developed viral spike-protein mutations linked to treatment resistance, according to a study from the Netherlands published yesterday in JAMA. (8/2)
A study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open details US utilization of the two most effective medications used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that quantities of methadone dwindled as buprenorphine doses expanded. (Van Beusekom, 7/27)
In a significant victory for AbbVie, a U.S. appeals court panel declined to revive a lawsuit that accused the company of using a so-called patent thicket to forestall competition for its Humira medication, a franchise product that generates billions of dollars in sales each year. (Silverman, 8/2)
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the biggest seller of Adderall in the US, has been experiencing 鈥渟upply disruptions鈥 of the popular ADHD drug at a time when demand is at all-time highs, a spokesperson for the company said. (Swetlitz, 8/2)
