About Covid-19
COVID vaccine makers shift focus to boosters “COVID-19 vaccine makers are shifting gears and planning for a smaller, more competitive booster shot market after delivering as many doses as fast as they could over the last 18 months.
Executives at the biggest COVID vaccine makers including Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc said they believe most people who wanted to get vaccinated against COVID have already done so - more than 5 billion people worldwide.
In the coming year, most COVID vaccinations will be booster shots, or first inoculations for children, which are still gaining regulatory approvals around the world, they said.”
About health insurance
Unwinding the PHE: What We Can Learn From Pre-Pandemic Enrollment Patterns “The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), passed during the coronavirus pandemic, includes a Medicaid continuous enrollment requirement that prohibits states from disenrolling people from Medicaid in exchange for additional federal funds. The continuous enrollment requirement has prevented coverage loss and churn (moving off and then back on to coverage) among enrollees during pandemic and, along with other factors, has contributed to the substantial enrollment growth in Medicaid. From February 2020 to January 2022, total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment has increased by 15.7 million enrollees (22.1%). The continuous enrollment requirement will last until the end of the month in which with national public health emergency (PHE) ends. Currently, the PHE is in effect through mid-July 2022 and, at this time, it is expected that the continuous enrollment requirement will end August 1, 2022. The Biden administration has said it will give states 60 days’ notice before the PHE ends, and so if state are not notified by mid-May, the PHE will likely be extended further.”
Anthem closes acquisition of Integra Managed Care “Anthem has closed its acquisition of New York-based Integra Managed Care.
The insurer announced plans to acquire Integra, a long-term care plan, in November. The plan will bring more than 40,000 Medicaid members into the Anthem fold and offers coverage to assist with managing long-term care needs and disabilities in the home.”
Top 100 counties with the highest rate of uninsured residents All but 2 of the top 25 are in Texas.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Leapfrog Group: Patients report worse hospital experiences during COVID-19 pandemic, raising safety concerns “Leapfrog’s twice-annual reports assess more than 30 patient safety measures and component measures compiled from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Leapfrog’s hospital surveys between July 2018 and March 2021. The most recent release assigns letter grades to nearly 3,000 U.S. general hospitals and is the second collection of scores to incorporate safety and experience data from the COVID-19 pandemic…
The group found statistically significant declines between the survey periods in the average percentage of hospital patients who gave the most favorable responses for nine of the 10 HCAHPS measures.
The greatest decline was seen among patients’ experiences with hospital staff responsiveness (a 3.7 percentage point decrease), followed by communication about medicines (a 2.9 point decrease), and cleanliness of the hospital (a 2.9 point decrease).”
Check this site to search by hospital.
About pharma
GoodRx stock tumbles as 2022 revenue expected to take a hit from grocery chain prescription dispute “GoodRx expects its 2022 revenue to take a hit due to recent actions by one grocery store chain that represents a sizable chunk of its grocery prescription business.
The digital healthcare platform, best known for providing prescription drug discounts, disclosed Monday that it is unlikely to achieve its full-year guidance after a grocery chain stopped accepting discounts for certain drugs. In its fourth-quarter earnings call back in February, executives said they projected revenue to grow 23% in 2022, on top of full-year revenue of $745 million in 2021.
Shares were down 31% in after-hours trading.
The company did not disclose the name of the grocery chain.”
Pfizer to buy Biohaven for $11.6 billion ”Pfizer agreed to acquire Biohaven Pharmaceuticals for $148.50 per share in cash, or approximately $11.6 billion, to gain full control of the drugmaker, the companies announced Tuesday. Last year, Pfizer paid $350 million to take a 2.6% stake in Biohaven as part of a deal for certain rights to the migraine therapies Nurtec ODT (rimegepant) and zavegepant.”
The deal is expected to close early in 2023.
Analysis paints gloomy picture for smaller biotechs “According to Jeffries analysts, the number of small- to mid-cap (SMID) biotechnology companies trading below cash has soared to 128, up from 45 last year… The latest figure, the highest ever seen in the industry, also accounts for a quarter of SMID biotech firms, and beats the previous record of 18% seen during the 2008 financial crisis.
Jeffries blames the current situation on negative clinical study readouts and record levels of clinical holds and FDA delays, particularly in the gene/cell editing space. They also pointed to the broader macro environment, in which generalist investors favour defensive, dividend-yielding large-cap biopharma companies…
Another recent analysis by Jeffries revealed that the top 20 biopharma firms now hold over $300 billion in cash – boosted in part by COVID-19 vaccine sales – enough to ‘basically buy the whole SMID-cap universe.’ Looking ahead, the analysts suggest that M&A activity in the second half of the year ‘may’ pick up if large-cap biopharma companies choose to open up their coffers, while the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) is expected to grow, albeit with more conservative valuations.”
These financial changes could cause a fundamental restructuring of the biotech industry- away from small firms that contract with larger ones, to “Big Biotech/Pharma.”
Inside the sales machine of the ‘kingpin’ of opioid makers A really good investigative reporting piece about Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals from The Washington Post.
About the public’s health
Risk Factors Associated With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias by Sex and Race and Ethnicity in the US “In this cross-sectional study, the modifiable risk factors most prominently associated with ADRDs were midlife obesity, physical inactivity, and low education. The proportion of ADRD cases associated with modifiable risk factors was higher in men and in American Indian and Alaska Native individuals, Black individuals, and Hispanic individuals (any race) compared with Asian individuals and White individuals.”
About healthcare IT
Amwell sees strong demand for telehealth visits in Q1, but losses deepen as it ramps up R&D “Telehealth giant Amwell saw telehealth visits grow to 1.8 million in the first quarter of 2022, up 16% compared to the tail end of 2021 and up about 11% from 1.6 million virtual care visits during the same time last year.
The total number of active providers using its virtual care platform grew to around 102,000 during the quarter, up 25% compared to 81,000 a year ago.
But the company reported greater adjusted EBITDA losses than the previous year, with a loss of $47 million, 80% deeper than its reported loss in the prior-year period. Amwell reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $26 million in the first quarter of 2021.”
Joint Audit of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs Efforts to Achieve Electronic Health Record System Interoperability From the VA OIG: “The DoD and VA took action to achieve interoperability of patient health care information across DoD, VA, and external health care providers by acquiring Cerner Millennium, deploying the EHR system at 49 DoD facilities and one VA health care facility, and launching the Joint Health Information Exchange. However, the DoD did not:
• consistently migrate patient health care information from the legacy electronic health care systems into Cerner Millennium to create a single, complete patient EHR;
• develop interfaces from all medical devices to Cerner Millennium so that patient health care information will automatically upload to the system from those devices; or
• ensure that users were granted access to Cerner Millennium for only the information needed to perform their duties
Achieving interoperability between the DoD, VA, and external health care providers through the deployment of a single EHR system is critical because health care providers will have the ability to securely transfer and share health care information for the Nation’s 9.6 million DoD Armed Forces members, dependents, and retirees, and 9.21 million enrolled users. As the DoD and the VA continue to deploy Cerner Millennium, health care providers at those facilities should be confident that a patient’s EHR is accurate and complete regardless of where the point of care occurred.”
A more detailed analysis and recommendations are contained in the full document.
About health technology
FDA Warns Fresenius Hemodialysis Machines Could Deliver Toxic Compound “The FDA warned that silicone tubing in three models of Fresenius Medical Care’s hemodialysis machines could expose users to toxic compounds.”