Smooth sailing
The most important news in healthcare: Friday, October 2nd
Did you miss us? We’re back from a brief hiatus. We’ve revamped the Morning Pulse to ensure we’re telling you why our stories matter and giving you the full context. As always, we share each week’s healthcare highlights so you never miss a beat.
Today’s stories cover the return of the cruise ship industry (yikes) and a congressional hearing on drug price hikes.
Today’s Pulse is 800 words, or a 6 minute read.
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Health PolicyCruise control
The pulse:
The White House has just blocked an order by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that would have kept cruise ships docked until mid-February.
The details:
A “no sail” order on all cruise ships was originally put in place in April of this year in response to numerous COVID-19 outbreaks among cruise-goers. Though the order was set to expire this past Wednesday, 9/30, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield recommended extending it for another five months. The White House has said no thanks on that rec and instead will allow ships to sail after October 31st, the same date that the cruise ship industry volunteered to re-open. Many believe this could be a strategic move to curry favor with voters in the crucial swing state of Florida.
The cruise ship industry is a powerhouse for Florida’s economy, generating $53 billion annually. Many Republican politicians, including the mayor of Miami-Dade country, have called for an end to the “no sail” order in order to provide an economic boost. However, public health officials remain worried about the potential for cruise ships to become viral hot spots.
The takeaway:
There’s no good time for a pandemic, but it turns out an outbreak during an election year is probably about as bad as it gets. Politicians throughout the country, from local to national levels, are making decisions about public health in a very politically charged landscape. The White House’s decision to allow cruise ships to sail again, despite the fact that there were nearly 3,000 cases of COVID-19 or COVID-19 like illnesses between March-July, directly rejects CDC recommendations. While this move may help re-open the economy in states like Florida that rely heavily on tourism (and win over some swing state voters), it will also pose significant public health risks.
Pharma
Source: Business Insider
Money talks
The pulse:
Yesterday, a congressional committee revealed that pharmaceutical giants Novartis, Amgen, and Mallinckrodt routinely hiked drug prices “as high as possible” for years in order to meet aggressive financial targets.
The details:
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has been leading an 18-month investigation into the practices of a dozen drug companies. This week, Novartis, Amgen, and Mallinckrodt have been in the spotlight.
All three companies have exerted monopoly like power over certain drugs, leading to prices that have skyrocketed. For example, Novartis hiked the price of Gleevec, a chemotherapy drug for leukemia, 22 times since it was launched in 2003. Its current price runs $123,000 for a yearly course. Amgen and Mallinckrodt have similarly hiked their prices — Amgen raised the cost of its immunosuppressant drug Enbrel by 457% since its launch in 2002.
After reviewing more than a million pages of documents, the committee found that these companies were able to maintain such high prices by adopting “anticompetitive” practices. For example, they pushed for settlement agreements to delay the launch of generics and used “shadow pricing,” a strategy that consistently follows competitors’ price hikes. These tactics have allowed for astronomical profits for these companies and exorbitant paydays for company execs.
The takeaway:
While none of the tactics have so far been dinged as technically illegitimate, the shadiness has no doubt created bad optics for these companies. The Chairwoman of the House committee stated that they all took “full advantage” of the law, though did not cross it. The evidence in the hearing clearly sets up lawmakers to question current Medicare laws that prevent any kind of negotiations on drug price.
Rapidfire
Cooties are no longer the number one infection kids should be watching out for. As more schools move to in person hybrid models, children now make up 10% of all US COVID-19 cases, up from just 2% in April.
Timothy Ray Brown, the first person to ever be cured of HIV, passed away on Tuesday from leukemia. His partner remarked “Timothy would like to be remembered as a man who gave hope to people around the world that a cure for H.I.V. is possible.”
What else is on our minds
What we’re reading 📚Everything Below the Waist: Why Healthcare Needs a Feminist Revolution. The title kind of says it all.
What we’re listening to 🎧 The Readout Loud by STAT, a weekly biotech podcast reporting all the latest goings-on in the industry.
What we’re watching 📺Lenox Hill, a new Netflix series following the lives of doctors and nurses in a busy NYC hospital