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Good morning. At the moment we’ve Andrew Joseph’s dispatch from a Barcelona hospital that developed its personal CAR-T, an intriguing clue to how weight problems medicine work within the (mouse) mind, and a win for toothbrushing vs. pneumonia.
Apple pauses gross sales of newest watches in patent battle
In case you had an Apple Watch in your want checklist for the vacations this yr, it’s possible you’ll have to rethink. To adjust to an import ban from the Worldwide Commerce Fee imposed in October, Apple is pulling Apple Watches with blood oxygen-measuring capabilities — that’s, Apple Watch Collection 9 and Apple Watch Extremely 2 — from its web site Thursday and from its shops Sunday. The ITC has dominated that Apple infringed on the patents of pulse oximeter firm Masimo. President Biden has till Dec. 25 to approve or veto the import ban, however Apple determined to pause gross sales first. Older variations of the Apple Watch that observe coronary heart price and bodily exercise will nonetheless be obtainable.
Apple and Masimo have been battling over the heartbeat oximeter story since 2020, with a mistrial in Might and a Masimo-requested retrial that can begin in a yr. STAT’s Lizzy Lawrence has extra.
Weight reduction medicine could battle irritation within the mind, mouse research suggests
A brand new research in mice appears to be like extra intently at why new weight-loss medicines like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound work so effectively — not only for attaining weight reduction, but in addition for slicing the chances of coronary heart assault and dying. There was a clue in that decrease cardiovascular danger: the advantages accrued earlier than weight reduction passed off, doubtless from lowered irritation.
The research posted yesterday in Cell Metabolism discovered that GLP-1-based medicine acted by the mind to cut back irritation all through the physique, simply earlier than the mice misplaced weight. If this discovery holds up in people, and if researchers can determine the place within the mind these reactions happen, new medicine may purpose at these areas, mentioned Daniel Drucker, senior creator of the research. “It is a new mannequin for the anti-inflammatory actions of GLP-1 medicine.” STAT’s Elaine Chen explains.
How — and why — a Spanish hospital developed its personal CAR-T
Greater than a decade in the past, a crew of immunologists and hematologists in Barcelona, Spain, noticed the primary case experiences about CAR-T therapies, through which scientists take an individual’s personal immune cells and engineer them to root out most cancers as soon as reinfused right into a affected person’s physique. That crew got down to construct their very own remedy, reasonably than depend on what would turn out to be brand-name medicines developed by pharma corporations. The hospital-grown model gained regulatory approval below a particular European coverage and earned reimbursement from the nationwide well being system, at about one-third the checklist value of Kymriah or Yescarta.
“It’s usually not what we do, educational establishments,” Julio Delgado, a hematologist at Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, informed STAT’s Andrew Joseph. “It’s simply that we see there are such a lot of sufferers within the European Union who don’t have entry to CAR-T cell merchandise.” Learn what’s concerned, and the place advocates and trade disagree.
Who had been the worst biotech CEOs of 2023?
So if selecting yesterday’s greatest biopharma CEO of 2023 was a slam dunk for David Ricks at Eli Lilly, who will get the nod for worst from STAT’s Adam Feuerstein? That might be Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. The reason being accountability: Strategic missteps, monetary miscalculations, and scientific setbacks have plunged Pfizer right into a deep disaster. Bourla is the person on the prime, so the duty lies with him.
However Bourla has a chance to show Pfizer round, Adam notes. The 2024 reset ought to get an help from the $43 billion acquisition of most cancers drugmaker Seagen. In the meantime, the remainder of the checklist appears to be like extra just like the “blockheads and scoundrels” of yesteryear, to make use of Adam’s time period, after which there’s the dumpster. Learn extra.
Debate is reignited on digital trackers in well being care
Trackers — ubiquitous bits of code invisibly embedded in most web sites — comply with you wherever you go on the web. That’s why these on-point advertisements seem, seemingly out of nowhere however really immediately from the pages you go to, the buttons you click on, and the types you fill out. The stakes are larger when that web page or button or kind contain your delicate medical info.
We’ve informed you about investigations by STAT and The Markup that demonstrated how these trackers can leak delicate info, together with diagnoses and drugs, to corporations like Meta and Google. Authorities regulators have stepped in, lawsuits have been filed, and well being programs and firms have responded. However one other contingent is steeling itself for a battle, arguing that regulators have overstepped their authority and hobbled important well being care infrastructure by focusing on trackers. STAT’s Katie Palmer tells us extra.
Toothbrushing tied to decrease pneumonia charges for critically sick hospital sufferers
Think about this: Stopping the commonest an infection sufferers choose up within the hospital is likely to be so simple as brushing their enamel twice a day. A brand new evaluation in JAMA Inside Medication analyzed 15 research of greater than 2,700 sufferers to conclude that hospital-acquired pneumonia charges had been decrease amongst sufferers randomly assigned to obtain every day toothbrushing, particularly in the event that they had been on ventilators to assist them breathe. These sufferers stayed on ventilators for a shorter time, left ICUs quicker, and had been much less prone to die within the ICU than different sufferers. Size of their hospital stays and using antibiotics didn’t make a distinction.
Oral care has at all times been essential in these sufferers as a result of pneumonia has been linked to the microbes of their mouths that they breathe in. Antiseptics don’t appear to assist, so common toothbrushing was examined. “Oral hygiene may assume an indispensable position akin at hand hygiene within the prevention and management of well being care–related infections,” a companion commentary says.
What we’re studying
- Can AI make it easier to die? Bloomberg
- Biden administration asks decide to toss out Humana’s Medicare Benefit audit lawsuit, STAT
- For the lonely, tech presents friendship – at a value, Washington Submit
- A giant false impression in regards to the world’s biggest infectious killer, The Atlantic
- Prime Medication, Mukherjee’s Myeloid Therapeutics conflict over genome-editing deal, STAT