About Covid-19
New coronavirus subvariants escape antibodies from vaccination and prior Omicron infection, studies suggest “Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 appear to escape antibody responses among both people who had previous Covid-19 infection and those who have been fully vaccinated and boosted, according to new data from researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, of Harvard Medical School.
However, Covid-19 vaccination is still expected to provide substantial protection against severe disease, and vaccine makers are working on updated shots that might elicit a stronger immune response against the variants.”
U.S. delivers 2.7 mln COVID vaccine doses for kids under five to administration sites “The United States has delivered about 2.7 million doses of COVID vaccines for children below five years to administration centres while another one million shots will reach the sites soon, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday.”
Moderna bivalent COVID-19 booster shows promise against Omicron subvariants “Moderna announced Wednesday that its Omicron-targeting coronavirus booster shot significantly increased antibodies against the strain's newest subvariants, though the immune response was less potent than seen with the Omicron ‘parent’ strain that emerged late last year. According to Moderna, its mRNA-1273.214 candidate exhibited a ≥5-fold boost in neutralising antibodies against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants in a Phase II/III study.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
HCA, McKesson to form oncology research joint venture “The joint venture between McKesson's U.S. Oncology Research and HCA Healthcare's Sarah Cannon Research Institute plans to offer an expanded clinical research network, a broader portfolio of clinical trials, and enhanced data and analytics capabilities to better match patients to trials.
The transaction is expected to close in 2022. McKesson will own 51 percent of the joint venture and have operating control.”
About pharma
Industry sponsorship bias in cost effectiveness analysis [CEA]: registry based analysis “Among 5877 CEAs that reported positive incremental costs and quality adjusted life years, ICERs [incremental cost effectiveness ratios] from industry sponsored studies were 33% lower (95% confidence interval −40 to −26) than those from non-industry sponsored studies.”
Comment: This article was quoted by many news outlets, but the need for independent studies is not new. See, for example, Industry sponsorship and research outcome from 2017.
Novartis, GSK commit $1.25B to R&D spending plan for tropical diseases and beyond “Novartis and GSK have both pledged serious amounts of money towards R&D for neglected tropical diseases. Swiss pharma Novartis announced its commitment of $250 million, which covers a five-year period, will support work on malaria, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, dengue fever and cryptosporidiosis.
Meanwhile, GSK promised $1 billion over a decade to accelerate R&D dedicated to infectious diseases that disproportionately impact lower-income countries. The research will focus on new and disruptive vaccines and medicines to prevent and treat malaria, tuberculosis, HIV—through GSK's ViiV unit—neglected tropical diseases and anti-microbial resistance.”
About the public’s health
Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Trends Among Adolescents: 2015 to 2020 “Overall, HPV vaccination coverage (≥1 dose) among adolescents significantly increased from 56.1% in 2015 to 75.4% in 2020.”
CDC touts vaccine for gay men for Florida meningitis surge “Health officials on Wednesday recommended that men in Florida who have sex with other men get a meningococcal vaccine following one of the worst outbreaks among gay and bisexual men in U.S. history of a bacteria that causes meningitis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that there have been at least 24 cases and seven deaths among gay and bisexual men caused by the bacteria in Florida recently.”
FDA orders Juul e-cigarettes off the market, citing insufficient and conflicting data “Juul, the once-booming Silicon Valley start-up widely blamed for igniting the youth vaping epidemic, was grounded Thursday by federal regulators who ordered its e-cigarette products off the market, a move so sweeping that it surprised even some anti-tobacco advocates.
The Food and Drug Administration denied Juul’s applications to continue selling e-cigarette devices and pre-filled cartridges in menthol and tobacco flavors. It was the most dramatic action in the agency’s years of effort to crack down on youth vaping.”
FDA approves 15-valent pneumococcal vaccine for children “Merck announced Wednesday that the FDA approved an expanded indication for Vaxneuvance, the company’s 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, to include its use in infants and children aged 6 weeks to 17 years.
The vaccine, formerly known as V114, was approved by the FDA last July for adults.”
U.S. to expand monkeypox testing at commercial labs as outbreak grows “The Biden administration announced Wednesday it is authorizing commercial laboratories to conduct monkeypox tests in an attempt to dramatically expand testing as the United States confronts a record outbreak that experts fear is far larger than the official count of 156 cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started shipping test kits to five commercial laboratory companies this week, allowing health providers to order tests from the labs directly by early July. The companies include Quest Diagnostics, Sonic Healthcare, Labcorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories and Aegis Sciences.”
US health care can’t afford health inequities “Inequities in the US health system cost approximately $320 billion today and could eclipse $1 trillion in annual spending by 2040 if left unaddressed…
Deloitte’s model looked at several high-cost diseases such as breast cancer, diabetes, colorectal cancer, asthma, and cardiovascular disease. For these diseases, our actuaries determined the proportion of spending that could be attributed to health inequities. For instance, Black adults are 60% more likely than white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes and two to three times more likely to have complications, according to research. Racial inequity often contributes to a late diagnosis and comorbidities. Our analysis determined that 4.8% of spending on diabetes is associated with health care disparities, which results in $15 billion in unnecessary spending. Similarly, health care spending on asthma is about $56 billion a year.About 4.3% of those costs are related to income disparities, which can result in late diagnoses and challenges in accessing appropriate care and medications.”