Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Medication Is Now Leading Type Of Abortion Care; Drug Combination May Treat Diabetes And Obesity
For most of the almost 50 years since the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion nationwide, clinics have been the focus of the battle over abortion rights. Protesters gather outside on sidewalks. And Republican state lawmakers try to regulate what happens inside — through laws restricting which healthcare providers can perform abortions, the kind of counseling required and which procedures are allowed. But now, more than half of abortions are taking place with pills. (McCammon, 3/29)
Researchers have identified new drug combinations to treat people with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The goal is to develop personalized prescriptions that are more effective than single drugs and that can potentially replace more invasive treatments such as bariatric surgery, especially for children. (5/3)
Amid ongoing turmoil over the cost of prescription medicines, a new analysis finds that brand-name drugmakers increased their wholesale prices by 4.4% in the last quarter of 2021, up slightly from 3.8% a year earlier. But when accounting for inflation, wholesale prices fell by 2.3%. (Silverman, 3/29)
Relative to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the Moderna version confers slightly more protection against infection—but not hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, or death—90 days after the second dose, suggests a modeling study of more than 3.5 million fully vaccinated Americans published today in Nature Communications. (Van Beusekom, 5/2)
The Solidarity trial among COVID-19 inpatients has previously reported interim mortality analyses for four repurposed antiviral drugs. Lopinavir, hydroxychloroquine, and interferon (IFN)-β1a were discontinued for futility but randomisation to remdesivir continued. Here, we report the final results of Solidarity and meta-analyses of mortality in all relevant trials to date. ... Remdesivir has no significant effect on patients with COVID-19 who are already being ventilated. Among other hospitalised patients, it has a small effect against death or progression to ventilation (or both). (5/2)
