- CBO: Social Security and Medicare to become insolvent in the next 10 years.
- Disappointing discovery: ChatGPT is politically biased.
- FDA Commissioner Robert Califf: Low Generic Prices Can Lead to Drug Shortages. (InsideHealthPolicy – gated)
- Florida Surgeon General issues an alert on adverse events connected to Covid vaccines.
- Reasons to have more sex: it reduces pain, relieves stress, improves sleep, lowers blood pressure and strengthens heart health. (NYT)
Category: Drug Prices & Regulations
One-in-Ten FDA-Approved Drug Failed at Least One Drug Trial Goals
Is U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval the gold standard for whether a drug truly does what it’s supposed to? Not according to a recent analysis. A review by Harvard and Yale researchers found that one-in-ten drugs approved by the FDA between 2018-2021 failed one or more of the stated endpoints.
Wednesday Links
- Study: the closing of the donut hole increased the use of prescription drugs by Medicare enrollees. It also looks like there was more substitution of branded drugs for generics.
- Study: Our findings suggest that shifting child care from the home to the market increases labor force participation and improves child outcomes.
- Study: “we find that bans or restrictions that specifically target ‘assault weapons’ increase demand for handguns, which are associated with the vast majority of firearm-related violence.
- The Peltzman effect: When you make an activity safer, there tends to be an offsetting (more risky) behavioral response.
Tuesday Links
- Valentine fact of the day: one in four female physicians is married to another physician. It’s called “assortive mating,” and Charles Murray noted some time ago that it is one reason why we are “Coming Apart.” Call it “Cupid’s invisible hand.”
- New York state drops masking rules for hospitals and nursing homes. But facilities can impose their own rules.
- Infant mortality is twice as high among black mothers as among whites and this is true for rich women as well as the poor.
- Climate change subsidies: it helps if you’re rich.
- If the “abortion pill” is banned, there is an off-label use of another drug that will achieve the same result.
- Art Laffer has a new book.