About 85% of new medicines launched between 2012 and 2021 were available in the U.S., compared to 61% in Germany, 59% in the U.K. and 52% in France and Italy. Bluebird bio in 2021 said it was unwinding operations in Europe and withdrawing gene therapies for rare diseases, citing the challenges of “achieving appropriate value…
Category: Policy & Legislation
FDA to Decide Whether Covid Boosters Become an Annual Ritual Like Flu Shots
Did you get your flu vaccine this year? How about last year? For me it’s been a few years. As I’ve written before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must decide six months in advance which strains of influenza circulating in Asia are likely to hit North America the following winter. The flu vaccine is a cocktail of four different flu strains designed to combat the strains likely to infect Americans. Sometimes the CDC guesses right, and the United States experiences a mild flu season. In other years a strain that nobody expected somehow becomes dominant and spreads throughout the US and flu is widespread.
Monday Links
- UK study: When hospitals merge, patients suffer.
- Only about one-third of Americans think the US health care system has minor or no problems–and that percentage hasn’t varied much in the last 20 years. And that includes the passage and enactment of Obamacare.
- UK ambulances took an average of 1 hour & 32 minutes to respond to heart attacks & strokes last month. 5 X higher than target, double the average in November.
- Study: Even a little alcohol can be harmful to your health.
- A lot of health provisions were stuck in the omnibus spending bill. (NYT)
Friday Links
- Reason (magazine) investigation: CDC used Facebook to silence Covid dissent.
- More than 1,000 nursing homes reached a 75% infection rate during the Covid pandemic.
- For: more off label uses of existing drugs.
- IRA bill is already affecting drug development – negatively.
- What it will cost to attend this year’s Super Bowl game: almost $9,000.
- The Manchin/Capito Trust Act would force Congress to do what it doesn’t want to do: Tackle our unfunded entitlement liabilities.