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Buongiorno! We’re now formally on this yr’s residence stretch. For me, which means I’m flying residence to Italy (with Tuna — please ship any and all suggestions for lengthy flights with spicy little canines) on the finish of this week. In the meantime, don’t miss Allison DeAngelis’s fascinating profile on Reed Jobs and his funding in oncology.
Reed Jobs charts his personal course in biotech
For Steve Jobs’ son, Reed, his father’s most cancers wasn’t simply trigger for heartbreak and grief. It was additionally what led him down the trail that culminated this previous August with the founding of Yosemite, an funding agency targeted solely on oncology analysis, with $200 million in financing and plans to boost $200 million extra.
Jobs’ journey to Yosemite wasn’t easy. He deserted most cancers analysis as an undergraduate at Stanford after his father’s loss of life, graduating in historical past as an alternative. However what might have been a setback ended up working in his favor: By the point he ultimately re-entered oncology, now as an investor with the sources to have an effect, immunotherapy was altering all the pieces.
“The timing of my re-entry was superb, as a result of I used to be a newbie, however so was everybody, too, even when they didn’t understand it,” he advised STAT’s Allison DeAngelis. First by including a well being portfolio to his mom’s Emerson Collective, then by shifting the group over to Yosemite, Jobs has been making his mark within the subject. And he has no scarcity of ambition: “We actually simply wish to be a part of the issues which might be wondrous and form of take individuals’s breath away.” Learn extra.
The mere menace of antitrust scrutiny might have killed Cigna’s cope with Humana
Solely two weeks after rumors of a merger between Cigna and Humana had been reported, the deal is off. The massive challenge: Concern of antitrust intervention.
Specialists advised STAT’s Bob Herman that they anticipated the Division of Justice to conduct an investigation into the deal and probably block it, in keeping with its observe file with earlier makes an attempt at insurance coverage mega-mergers similar to Anthem-Cigna and Aetna-Humana. Though Cigna and Humana’s insurance coverage merchandise don’t overlap a lot, different features of the companies do, specifically their pharmacy profit managers, among the many high 4 within the nation.
Not a lot appears misplaced for Cigna, anyway. The corporate’s inventory has climbed to its highest level since November within the wake of its plan to make use of its out there money to extend inventory buybacks by a further $10 billion. Learn extra.
Cellular clinics supply strategy to take care of hard-to-reach sufferers
Chongcan Zhu, a 83-year-old longtime resident of Boston, lives alone — however she doesn’t really feel a way of isolation with regards to receiving well being care. That’s because of the van that comes straight to the senior residential group the place she lives, offering companies to individuals coping with situations like diabetes and hypertension and ldl cholesterol.
“It’s very handy to have the physician inspect me,” stated Zhu, who has been a affected person on the Mass Common Brigham Group Care Van about 5 instances to date, talking by way of a translator to STAT’s Anika Nayak.
The vans are half of a bigger motion of cellular clinics in Boston that grew in the course of the peak of Covid-19 because the pandemic make clear well being disparities. Current coverage modifications imply that extra cities throughout the U.S. might develop their very own initiatives to deliver care straight to sufferers. Learn extra.
Why methadone clinics are preventing dependancy medical doctors
A groundbreaking new invoice, slated for a Senate markup in the present day, would permit choose medical doctors to prescribe methadone on to their sufferers. The invoice’s supporters, together with medical doctors and affected person advocates, say that liberating sufferers from the burden of day by day visits to the methadone clinic would ease entry to a therapy that drastically reduces the chance of overdose loss of life.
However methadone clinics and their commerce group, the American Affiliation for the Remedy of Opioid Dependence, oppose the invoice, reviews Lev Facher. Clinics argue that altering the foundations would destabilize the therapy system and probably enhance dangers to sufferers. The clinics’ commerce group could also be in for defeat because the invoice has bipartisan help. Nevertheless, its path after the Senate Committee continues to be unclear. Learn extra.
What are the dangers of taking GLP-1 medication throughout being pregnant?
Taking GLP-1 receptor agonists for kind 2 diabetes throughout being pregnant doesn’t pose extra dangers for the fetus in comparison with insulin therapy, in response to a massive new examine revealed in JAMA Inside Medication. The observational examine checked out knowledge from about 52,000 pregnant ladies with pregestational kind 2 diabetes between 2009 and 2021. Of that group, roughly a 3rd had a prescription for a non-insulin diabetes medicine, together with GLP-1 medication, that are gaining popularity as kind 2 diabetes circumstances enhance.
General, infants born to moms with prenatal kind 2 diabetes have the next incidence of serious beginning defects — greater than 5.5%, in comparison with a baseline of three.7%. Publicity to insulin in utero additional will increase the chance to 7.8%, and the examine discovered that different anti-diabetic medication do as effectively, however to not a considerably bigger diploma. The examine’s authors observe that the info, “[a]lthough reassuring,” requires additional affirmation.
The hyperlink between acid reflux disorder and anxiousness
Earlier research have proven that ranges of despair and anxiousness are typically increased in individuals with gastrointestinal reflux, or GERD. A brand new evaluate and meta-analysis revealed on this month’s challenge of the Journal of American Gastroenterology, goals to quantify the affect of GERD on these sorts of frequent psychiatric situations.
The evaluate of 36 research discovered that one in three individuals with GERD additionally confirmed signs of tension and despair. The causal hyperlink might go each methods: Gastrointestinal points might result in elevated danger of tension and despair, and psychological well being situations might enhance the chance of GERD.
What we’re studying
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- Surge in variety of ‘extraordinarily productive’ authors issues scientists, Nature
- The costs of 8 medication had been hiked with out proof of recent advantages, costing the U.S. $1.2 billion in 2022, report finds, STAT
- Biology, anatomy, and finance? Extra med college students need enterprise levels too, KFF Well being Information
- Amid fears of superbugs, gross sales of antibiotics utilized in food-producing livestock rose final yr, STAT
- On the streets, opioids generally stronger than fentanyl: nitazenes, The Washington Submit
- It’s time to rethink the Medicare annual wellness go to, STAT