From Washington, DC

• Govexec reports,
  • “In the face of mounting pressure from lawmakers of all political stripes, watchdogs, stakeholders and even members of its own governing board, as well as another financial quarter in the red, leadership of the U.S. Postal Service is doubling down on its controversial plan to overhaul the agency. 
  • “USPS posted a net loss of $1.5 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2024, though management noted that was trimmed to a $300 million loss after dispensing with costs outside of its control. USPS leaders boasted they have turned a $200 million profit in the first half of the fiscal year using that same metric, which marked a $600 million turnaround compared to the first six months of fiscal 2023.
  • “While First-Class mail volume has continued its longstanding decline, revenue grew in the quarter by nearly $500 million due in large part to the dramatic price increases USPS has instituted. The Postal Service has cut $100 million in costs, driven largely by a reduction in transportation expenses and slashing 9 million work hours. 
  • “On-time delivery of mail, however, has plummeted as USPS has instituted significant reforms to its network as laid out in Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year Delivering for America plan.” 

• HHS posted a fact sheet on new government efforts to reduce the impact of spread of avian flu H5N1

• Senators John Fetterman (D PA) and Tina Smith (D MN) announced a bill, “the United States Senate Commission on Mental Health Act of 2024. The bill would establish a U.S. Senate Commission on Mental Health tasked with providing Congress and the president independent, expert policy recommendations to improve access to and affordability of mental health care services. * * * Full text of the bill can be found here.“

From the public health and medical research front,

• The Centers for Disease Control tells us today,
  • “The amount of respiratory illness (fever plus cough or sore throat) causing people to seek healthcare continues to decrease across most areas of the country. This week, no jurisdictions experienced moderate, high, or very high activity.
  • “Nationally, emergency department visits with diagnosed influenza are decreasing. Emergency department visits with COVID-19 and RSV remain stable at low levels.
  • “Nationally, influenza and RSV test positivity decreased compared to the previous week. COVID-19 test positivity remained stable at low levels.
  • “Nationally, the COVID-19 wastewater viral activity level, which reflects both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections, is minimal.”

• The FDA offers tips to “Help Charge Medical Devices Safely and Avoid Overheating” and to “Stay Safe in the Sun: From Sunscreen to Sunglasses.”

• STAT News reports “Harvard scientists unveil the most detailed map of the brain ever: ‘It’s an alien world inside your own head’”.
  • “On Thursday, [Dr. Jeffrey’ Lichtman and his partners unveiled the results of their [decade long] efforts in the prestigious journal Science, and also posted to the internet renderings of the human brain unlike any ever seen. They came complete with a program that allows viewers to move through a microscopic alien landscape so detailed Lichtman can’t resist waxing poetic when he talks about it.
  • “It’s an alien world inside your own head,” he said. “Neurons themselves are truly awe inspiringly beautiful. There’s no two ways about it.”
  • “True, the insights gleaned from the tiny sample have not yet unraveled the mysteries of autism, schizophrenia, or depression. They can’t yet explain the mechanics of human learning, memory, and personality on the cellular level. But they represent an important first step in that direction, and provide a tantalizing preview of the kind of insights we might see in the decades ahead.”

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Bristol Myers Squibb said on Friday that its trial evaluating a combination of cancer treatments failed to meet its primary endpoint.
  • “The company’s trial was evaluating the cancer-drug Opdivo and concurrent chemoradiotherapy, followed by Opdivo plus Yervoy, the brand name for a monoclonal antibody, in treating unresectable, locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The trial’s primary endpoint was progression-free survival.
  • “Bristol Myers Squibb said it would fully evaluate the data and work with investigators to share results with the scientific community.
  • “Opdivo and certain combinations with Opdivo are approved treatments for eligible patients with non-small cell lung cancer.”

• Per Fierce Healthcare,
  • “Cancer diagnoses are on the rise among younger adults, and a new guidebook seeks to arm employers with the tools necessary to tackle this issue.
  • “The Northeast Business Group on Health’s new toolkit highlights actions employers can take to proactively address growing rates for five types of cancer in their workforce: breast cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, cancer of the reproductive organs and skin cancer.
  • “There’s a clear business case for putting a focus on cancer, as the cost of therapies continues to increase and patients often require treatment for the long haul, NEBGH Medical Director Mark Cunningham-Hill, M.D., told Fierce Healthcare.
  • “He said that many employers, especially larger firms, have established sophisticated and comprehensive wellness and health programs for their workers. But they can do more to “connect the dots” between those offerings and critical preventive care around cancer and conditions that increase risk factors, like obesity.”

• USA Data relates,
  • One out of every 42 babies born in the United States in 2021 was conceived using IVF or other assisted reproductive technologies.  
  • Parents who started treatments in 2021 gave birth to 97,128 babies, a 49% increase from 2012. In 2021, 238,126 patients initiated 413,776 IVF or similar treatment cycles, up 135% from 2012. 
  • IVF was most common in Washington, DC, with 5.8% of babies conceived via IVF, Massachusetts (5.4%), and New Jersey (5.0%). Less than one percent of infants born in Puerto Rico were conceived via IVF (0.4%). Alabama (0.6%) and Arkansas (0.7%) also had low rates.  

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• The Kaiser Family Foundation released a “KFF Health Tracking Poll May 2024: The Public’s Use and Views of GLP-1 Drugs.” Here are the key finding from the poll:
  • “The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that about one in eight adults (12%) say they have ever taken a GLP-1 agonist – an increasingly popular class of prescription drugs used for weight loss and to treat diabetes or prevent heart attacks or strokes for adults with heart disease – including 6% who say they are currently taking such a drug. The share who report ever taking these drugs rises to four in ten (43%) among adults who have been told by a doctor that they have diabetes, a quarter who have been told they have heart disease, and one in five (22%) who have been told by a doctor that they are overweight or obese in the past five years¹. Public awareness of GLP-1 drugs has increased in the past year, with about one-third (32%) of adults now saying they have heard “a lot” about these drugs, up from 19% in July 2023.
  • “Most adults who have taken GLP-1 drugs say they took them to treat a chronic condition including diabetes or heart disease (62%), while about four in ten say they took them primarily to lose weight.
  • “About half (54%) of all adults who have taken GLP-1 drugs say it was difficult to afford the cost, including one in five (22%) who say it was “very difficult.” While most insured adults who have taken these drugs say their insurance covered at least part of the cost, even among insured adults about half (53%) say the cost was difficult to afford².
  • “While 8% of adults ages 65 and older say they have taken a GLP-1 medication for a chronic condition, just 1% say they have ever taken a GLP-1 drug to lose weight, which may reflect Medicare’s lack of coverage for prescription drugs used for weight loss. Nearly four in ten (37%) adults ages 65 and older report being told by a doctor they are overweight or obese in the past five years.
  • “With Medicare currently prohibited by law from covering prescription drugs used for weight loss, six in ten adults say they think Medicare should cover the cost of these drugs when prescribed for weight loss for people who are overweight, including more than half of Democrats, independents and Republicans. Similar shares of the public continue to support Medicare coverage of these drugs for weight loss even after hearing arguments for and against this proposal.”

• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “Sanofi will pay vaccine maker Novavax $500 million and take a small equity stake in the Maryland-based company as part of a broad COVID-19 shot alliance, the companies announced Friday.
  • “Through the deal, Sanofi will gain rights to co-market Novavax’s protein-based COVID vaccine globally, excepting certain countries, and a license to combine it with Sanofi’s existing influenza shots. Sanofi will also hold a non-exclusive right to use Novavax’s soap bark tree-derived adjuvant in other products it develops.
  • “Starting next year, Sanofi will book sales of Novavax’s COVID shot and pay Novavax double-digit percentage royalties. The French pharmaceutical company will also support certain R&D, regulatory and commercial expenses.”

• Per MedTech Dive,
  • “Tandem Diabetes Care is recalling a version of its t:connect app for iPhone because of a fault that could drain insulin pump batteries, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.”Tandem Diabetes Care is recalling a version of its t:connect app for iPhone because of a fault that could drain insulin pump batteries, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
  • “After updating the app in February, Tandem received 224 injury reports in about two months. The reports related to an issue that caused the app to crash and relaunch, resulting in excessive use of Bluetooth and potentially draining the battery of the connected insulin pump.
  • “The FDA categorized the event as a Class I recall because of the life-threatening potential for pumps to deliver too little insulin. Tandem corrected the fault in an app update in March.”

• The Wall Street Journal explains why “Getting Alzheimer’s treatment to those who need it poses particular challenges.” For example
  • “The problem isn’t this drug. Sure. It has risks, et cetera,” said Jason Karlawish, co-director, of the Penn Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “But the problem was the drug and the system — namely with a system of care for its delivery.”
  • “Karlawish said his memory center infused its first patient with Leqembi on November 16. He said that in the six months since, the number of patients who have received the drug there has climbed into the double-digits, reaching roughly 50 people. That, he said, required setting up an infrastructure that “either didn’t exist or existed in bits that had to be put together.”

• MedCity new points out,
  • “Navigation challenges are the top reason consumers stop seeing healthcare providers, while experience issues are the main reason consumers leave their health insurer, a new survey found.
  • “The Accenture report, released last week, surveyed more than 9,700 insured consumers and 8,000 consumers who sought or received care in the prior year. The survey is a follow-up to a 2021 report, which examined why people are loyal or not loyal to their payer or provider.
  • “We wanted to leverage our patient and member experience surveys to continue to track the state of consumerism in health care, assessing how providers and health insurers perform across a number of key touchpoints that drive selection, loyalty, value and ease of use,” said Sarah Sinha, a managing director in Accenture’s health business, in an email.”

• Insurance Business tells us,
  • “Offering support across a variety of functions including customer service, claims processing, underwriting, and fraud detection, the capability of AI to analyze large datasets and process information will continue to revolutionize insurance.
  • “Nirmal Ranganathan, vice president of engineering, AI, at Rackspace Technology, spoke with Insurance Business on how insurance companies can take advantage of AI to generate cost savings across their businesses.”
  • Check it out.