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Good morning. Don’t miss Nicholas Florko’s jaw-dropping investigation into medical marijuana companies advertising and marketing their merchandise for most cancers or despair with no regulatory oversight.
Medical marijuana corporations are following pharma’s playbook, apart from the principles
Medical marijuana corporations borrow a number of advertising and marketing ways from pharmaceutical corporations. However as a result of they don’t comply with the identical guidelines, sufferers are put in danger, STAT’s Nicholas Florko tells us in a brand new STAT investigation. Large gamers like Trulieve, Curaleaf, and Verano promote their merchandise as therapies not only for muscle aches, however for most cancers and despair, with out proof to again up these claims.
How can they get away with this? Therein lies the paradox: Hashish corporations don’t should abide by guidelines over the claims they make or freebies they provide to docs as a result of for probably the most half, hashish drugs isn’t regulated federally. The U.S. authorities has deemed pot too harmful to be thought of a medication, so it’s ceded virtually all accountability to the states. “They’re in a position to name it a medication with out the mandatory rigor of figuring out whether or not or not it’s really a medication,” James Berry of West Virginia College stated concerning the companies. Learn extra, together with firm responses.
SNL skit on sickle cell remedy attracts outrage
Possibly you’ve already seen (and should you’re like me, cringed at) final weekend’s skit from “Saturday Night time Reside” concerning the new gene therapies for sickle cell illness. Should you haven’t, the gist is that this: At an workplace white-elephant-style present change, a white worker (Kate McKinnon) provides a Black worker with sickle cell (Kenan Thompson) enrollment in “Vertex Pharmaceutical and CRISPR Therapeutics’ exa-cel program for sickle cell anemia. ” He says no thanks, declaring, “I’m simply going to swap this out for a Boogie Woogie Santa.” Later, one other Black worker (Punkie Johnson) additionally rejects the therapy in favor of the singing, trumpet-playing Santa figurine.
Now the Sickle Cell Illness Basis, the Sickle Cell Illness Affiliation, and Sick Cells all condemned the sketch. “It’s how they’d the sickle cell characters: They made them look silly, they made them look unintelligent,” stated Ashley Valentine, head of Sick Cells. “These two caricatures that they placed on nationwide TV is how individuals view us,” Valentine stated. NBC didn’t reply to a request for remark. STAT’s Jason Mast has extra.
Drug corporations want to inform FDA how they’ll diversify scientific trials. Will it work?
Leaving individuals of colour out of scientific trials hampers well being care and drug improvement. Beginning subsequent 12 months, drug and medical gadget corporations must inform the FDA how they intend to make their scientific trials higher signify the various U.S. inhabitants. However planning isn’t the identical as doing, the trade’s monitor document isn’t nice, and it’s not clear whether or not the FDA will twist arms, consultants advised STAT’s John Wilkerson.
It’s a delusion that folks of colour are reluctant to hitch scientific analysis, Steve Smith of the scientific trial consulting agency WCG advised John. A current ballot by Analysis America discovered that folks of colour have been solely barely extra cautious of scientific trials than white People. Low scientific trial participation amongst individuals of colour is generally attributable to logistics, Smith stated. Learn extra.
STAT’s greatest images of 2023
I don’t understand how they narrowed down their checklist to only 14. Alissa Ambrose, STAT’s director of images and multimedia, labored with Crystal Milner, STAT’s image editor, to decide on probably the most memorable images of 2023 from STAT’s many contributing photographers. The one above exhibits Bat-Erdene Namsrai performing an experiment on a rat for brand new analysis on cryogenic organ preservation, described on this story by contributor Marion Renault.
You’ll discover extra photographs right here of individuals whose tales we advised, amongst them buyers and researchers shifting their industries ahead, a person working to flee the cycle of habit, and doctor who has taken his profession on the highway after the abortions he offers have been made unlawful in his house state.
Classes on the ability of contact tracing
Bear in mind contact tracing for Covid-19? A brand new examine in Nature 7 million contacts in England and Wales notified by the NHS COVID-19 app concludes that how a lot time somebody spent with an contaminated individual was the one largest predictor of whether or not they would develop into contaminated with Covid-19 themselves. The authors say their evaluation additionally exhibits the ability of contact-tracing apps like this one to ship exact info on threat in future epidemics.
Right here’s the way it labored: The app relied on Bluetooth sign power to measure how shut and the way lengthy smartphones have been close by, after which notified the contacts of confirmed circumstances. The researchers mixed that knowledge with 240,000 optimistic exams reported after notification. Period and proximity mattered: Fleeting contacts (lower than half-hour) made up half of reported contacts however only a few transmissions. Family contacts have been simply 6% of contacts, however they accounted for 40% of transmissions.
Well being care price will increase aren’t exceeding inflation for one good cause
Yesterday we advised you the U.S. authorities spent extra on well being care in 2022 than six nations with common well being care, mixed. At the moment, oncologost Ezekiel Emanuel notes that whereas well being care spending within the U.S. has traditionally exceeded general inflation, that’s modified in recent times.
Excluding 2020’s Covid spike, well being care prices have remained at or under 18% of GDP since 2010, when Obamacare started. Medicare’s spending per individual has been flat for greater than a decade, and premiums for personal employer-sponsored insurance coverage have been rising at 3.7% previously decade, a lot slower than the 8.4% between 1999 and 2011. Why? “The mindset of American physicians and different clinicians has modified, from ignoring prices to attempting to chop them,” Emanuel writes in a STAT First Opinion. Learn his clarification.