Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Feds Press Pause On $765M Kodak Loan To Make Drug Ingredients
Kodak stock plunged 30% Monday after a $765 million loan from the US government to help make drug ingredients was put on hold, as regulators are reportedly looking into allegations of insider trading. The stock was temporarily halted after plunging as much as 43% earlier in the day. (Valinsky, 8/10)
As Indian regulators endorse controversial treatments for Covid-19, a group of high-profile physicians and activists is urging the government to bolster transparency surrounding all drug approvals, the release of clinical trial data, and licenses issued for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Critics have long complained that Indian government oversight of its pharmaceutical industry is lax, but the issue has intensified in recent weeks over approvals for certain medicines to combat the new coronavirus. (Silverman, 8/10)
The dark-money group Citizens for Truth in Drug Pricing, which has run several major anti-pharma campaigns on conservative radio shows, received significant funding from the Association of American Medical Colleges, according to a recent review of federal tax documents. AAMC, the nonprofit organization that administers the MCAT exam and lobbies on behalf of medical schools and teaching hospitals, gave the group $500,000 in 2018, according to a disclosure form. (Facher, 8/11)
As drug firms race to position themselves as key players in the coronavirus fight, the industry faces a renewed wave of civil lawsuits stemming from its role in the nation's deadly opioid epidemic. Thousands of cases that ground to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic are moving forward again as local, state and federal courts reopen around the United States. (Mann, 8/10)
Also 鈥
As the coronavirus surged across the Sunbelt, President Trump told a crowd gathered at the White House on July 4 that 99 percent of virus cases are 鈥渢otally harmless.鈥 The next morning on CNN, the host Dana Bash asked Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and one of the nation鈥檚 most powerful health officials: 鈥淚s the president wrong?鈥 (Kaplan, 8/10)
Four years after a devastating clinical trial failure, Seres Therapeutics seems to have found success. The company announced positive results Monday for its late-stage clinical trial of a microbe-based treatment for C. difficile. About 11% of patients who got Seres鈥 drug, a pill made with bacteria, still had a C. difficile recurrence; about 41% of people who did not get the drug saw their infection recur. (Sheridan, 8/10)
