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As the US Navy examines the balloon and searches for its cargo, experts fear the incident's effects on the US-China medical supply chain, according to an article yesterday in Scrip. The United States relies on overseas manufacturing for 18 of 21 critical antibiotics and 72% of its active pharmaceutical ingredients. ... One urgent issue is the resumption of FDA inspections of Chinese drug manufacturing plants. For example, BeiGene, Ltd., which has interests in both China and the United States, is still awaiting approval of its cancer antibody tislelizumab, which was postponed in July 2022 because the United States couldn't conduct inspections in China amid its now-scrapped zero-COVID policy. (Van Beusekom, 2/8)

Centene Corp has reached a $215.4 million settlement with California to resolve accusations it overcharged a state program for affordable healthcare by falsely inflating its costs for providing prescription drugs to patients. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the settlement on Wednesday with the managed care company, which denied liability and wrongdoing but considered the settlement "fair, reasonable, and adequate." (Stempel, 2/8)

KHN: Centene Agrees To $215 Million Settlement With California For Alleged Medicaid Overbilling 

Centene Corp. has agreed to pay more than $215 million to California over allegations it overcharged the state for pharmacy services — the biggest payout to date by the nation’s largest Medicaid insurer over its drug pricing practices. The agreement announced Wednesday makes California at least the 17th state to settle pharmacy billing claims totaling $939 million with the St. Louis-based insurance giant. Centene reported $144.5 billion in revenue in 2022, up 15% from the previous year. (Young, 2/8)

It was late last summer when Dr. Guillermo Amescua started noticing "something weird" about the eye infections he was seeing in his clinic. Amescua, a cornea specialist at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, had been well-versed in using antibiotics to treat bacterial eye infections. (Edwards, 2/9)

Representatives from CVS Health, the nation’s biggest health care company, and a trade group of companies that run prescription drug plans descended on a meeting of the state pharmacy board in Oklahoma City last week to oppose approval of the nation’s first detailed rule aimed at protecting prescription medication from extreme temperatures during shipping to patients. (Kaplan, 2/8)

The moment a donor heart is cut off from its blood supply, transplant teams are on a race against the clock to remove it, transport it, and sew it into the recipient, all within four hours. A new way of reprogramming donor hearts could give them more time. (Chen, 2/8)

When Rena Rossi, 41, was diagnosed with a rare type of diabetes at age 36, one of the first things she did was seek out other people living with the illness. The easiest way to do that was through social media and online groups dedicated to diabetes. The groups she joined and the accounts she followed had what one might expect: information about different equipment and medications and posts about difficult days and triumphs. (Sullivan, 2/9)

There’s been a surge in funding for health tech startups trying to treat or stave off the worst symptoms of chronic kidney disease, a costly and often deadly condition that affects 37 million people in the U.S. alone. (Castillo, 2/8)

The Philips respiratory machine recall is a no-win situation for patients and doctors. But for the medical device giant’s longtime rivals and new competitors, business is looking up. (Lawrence, 2/9)

Valentine’s Day is almost here, with its roses, chocolate and other candy, the latter often colored with red dye No. 3, an additive that has been much debated for decades. ... There is no evidence that ingesting red dye No. 3 or any other artificial food colors causes cancer in humans. Scientists, however, tend to use results of animal studies to understand possible effects in people. “The FDA says it isn’t safe enough to put it on our cheeks, but it’s okay to put it in our mouths?” said Lisa Lefferts, a scientist and consultant to Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which filed a petition with the FDA seeking the dye’s removal from products consumers eat and drink. “That’s crazy.” (Cimons, 2/7)