About Covid-19
140 million Americans have had coronavirus, according to blood tests analyzed by CDC: “The estimates, compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that about 43 percent of the country has been infected by the virus. The study shows that the majority of children have also been infected.”
Most Americans say the coronavirus is not yet under control and support restrictions to try to manage it, Post-ABC poll finds: “The 34 percent overall who say they regard the pandemic as largely controlled is among the highest proportion since surveys began tracking such attitudes early in the pandemic. Yet nearly 6 in 10 U.S. adults think it is more important to control the virus, with some restrictions in daily life, while 4 in 10 prefer no restrictions.”
As expected (see the graphs), results are different between Democrats and Republicans.
About health insurance
Cigna stock buyback kicks off goal to generate $12B in value: “Cigna is looking to create $12 billion in value throughout 2022, starting with a plan to buy back $6 billion in stocks.
The move was approved at Cigna's February board meeting, which brought the payer's total share repurchase authority to $10 billion. The company has already repurchased $1.2 billion in shares, with the intent to tap $7 billion this year on stock buybacks.
The company highlighted that $5.4 billion of its deployable capital for the effort stems from its sale of international life, accident and supplemental benefits companies.”
Humana rolls out Kindred at Home's new brand, signals 'full integration': “Humana is rolling out Kindred at Home as CenterWell Home Health, an arm under its payer-agnostic brand, CenterWell.
Humana announced the creation of CenterWell in early 2021, a rebranded segment that houses all of its healthcare service offerings. Other subsidiaries have been rebranded to fit under this umbrella, with Kindred at Home being the latest move.
The rollout as CenterWell Home Health signals Kindred's "full integration" into Humana, the payer announced March 1.”
Memorial Hermann, Blue Cross Blue Shield terminate contract, forcing estimated 100K patients out of network: “The state’s biggest insurer and the region’s biggest health system were unable to resolve their differences on the status of independent physicians affiliated with Memorial Hermann. Blue Cross Blue Shield wanted the doctors to contract directly with the insurer rather than through Memorial Hermann, which now negotiates rates for nearly 3,000 independent doctors in its system.”
About pharma
Pharmaceutical Spending Up 77% Over 10 Years, Yet Out-of-Pocket Prescription Drug Costs Have Fallen in Same Period: “Key findings
Spending on pharmaceutical products — prescription and nonprescription drugs — in the U.S. has skyrocketed since 2010. In 2020, pharmaceutical spending topped $570 billion — a 77% increase from $322 billion in 2010…
Despite these increases, out-of-pocket prescription drug costs are down compared to 2010 — even with some big jumps in the middle of the decade. Costs (including copays and coinsurance) dropped from $48 billion in 2010 to $47 billion in 2020, even with a spike to $52 billion in 2015.
Nationally, prescriptions cost $4,571 a year per household…
Only 5% of prescriptions are paid for entirely out of pocket across the U.S., but it varies widely by state. A staggering 12% of prescriptions in North Dakota are completely paid out of pocket, versus 3% or less in each New England state — Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine.”
FDA Clears Blood Cancer Treatment: “U.S. drug regulators ap- proved a new customized, cell- based treatment for blood cancer from Johnson & John- son that is the first such ther- apy in the U.S. to be developed initially in China.
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday cleared the therapy, named Carvykti, for the treatment of multiple myeloma in adult patients whose disease has worsened despite prior treatments with other drugs.
The approval suggests a possible path forward for Western drugmakers seeking to bring China-developed drugs to the U.S. amid con- cerns about the quality of the drugs’ development: conduct- ing separate, confirmatory studies in Americans.”
Endo, Arnold & Porter Opioid Discovery Called 'Truly Awful': “Endo Pharmaceuticals and Arnold & Porter used a ‘coordinated strategy’ to hide key materials in opioid litigation, and the drugmaker deployed ‘disinformation’ and ‘intimidation’ after being severely punished for its discovery misconduct, a Tennessee judge wrote Monday. In a pair of rulings, Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Lee Young explained why he found Endo liable by default for discovery shortcomings in an opioid crisis case and rejected the company's argument that he has appeared biased and should disqualify himself from the matter.”
Viatris Agrees to Settle EpiPen Antitrust Litigation for $264M: “Viatris, formerly Mylan, has agreed to a $264 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company, along with Pfizer, had taken part in a scheme to delay generic competition to its EpiPen allergy treatment…”
And in a possibly related story: Viatris Selling Its Biosimilars Business to Bangalore-Based Biocon for Up to $3.3B
HSA Singapore the First National Regulatory Authority Awarded the Highest Recognition for an Advanced Medicines Regulatory System by the World Health Organization: “The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) is the first National Regulatory Authority (NRA) and Singapore is the first World Health Organization (WHO) member state to achieve Maturity Level (ML) 4 for its advanced medicines regulatory system. This achievement came after a rigorous and comprehensive assessment by a team of 15 international assessors and 4 WHO officials using the WHO’s Global Benchmarking Tool…
ML4 is the highest level of attainment for a regulatory system classification system conferred to an NRA that has met the highest quality standards stipulated by WHO for regulatory excellence.
About the public’s health
US births continue to decline but 'may be returning to pre-pandemic levels,' preliminary CDC data suggests: “US births dropped 2% in the first half of 2021 compared with the year prior, according to the new National Center for Health Statistics report, released Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same decline in births was observed for the first half of 2020, and births fell 5% in the second half of 2020…
NCHS researchers found that during the first half of 2021, compared with the same period in 2020, the nation's number of births declined 9% in January and 2% in February but then rose non-significantly by less than 1% in March and 1% in April, declined again by 1% in May and rose again by 3% in June.”
Senate Republicans, Manchin block bill to protect the right to abortion: “The Senate on Monday blocked consideration of a bill to protect the right to abortion nationwide, an election-year measure pushed by Democrats as the Supreme Court decides the fate of the landmark decision guaranteeing access to abortion.
Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) voted against moving ahead on the legislation. The Senate fell 14 votes short of the 60 necessary to begin debate on a vote of 46-to-48.”
About healthcare IT
Nearly 1M health records breached in February: “In February, 26 organizations reported to HHS that 941,680 individuals were affected by data breaches.”
Information Blocking Claims: By the Numbers: “Total number of possible claims of information blocking complaints: 274” 176 were from patients; the next largest number, 42, was from attorneys.
Cigna plans to invest $450M in venture arm for digital health, analytics: “The company is eyeing targeted bolt-on or tuck-in acquisitions along with investments in earlier-stage companies through Cigna Ventures. The company's board authorized an additional $450 million to invest in its venture capital arm with a focus on contributing to early-stage companies in the areas of insights and analytics, digital health and experience and care delivery and enablement, according to an announcement.”
About healthcare personnel
Health Care Expenditures Attributable to Primary Care Physician Overall and Burnout-Related Turnover: A Cross-sectional Analysis: “Turnover of PCPs results in approximately $979 million in excess health care expenditures for public and private payers annually, with $260 million attributable to PCP burnout-related turnover.”
About healthcare finance
Healthcare Trust of America, Healthcare Realty to combine in medical REIT deal: “The combined real estate investment trust will have 727 properties in its portfolio and a pro-forma total enterprise value of $17.6 billion as of Thursday's close.”