From Washington, DC —

• The Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee held its Superbugs hearing today.
• STAT News informs us
  • “The witnesses largely seemed to organize behind the Pasteur Act in terms of how Congress should respond. This bipartisan legislation, which has been introduced in both the House and Senate, would encourage drug development by creating a subscription-style business model. In other words, the U.S. government would offer upfront payments to drugmakers in exchange for responsible stewardship policies and unlimited access to their antibiotics. A similar model has been successfully piloted in England over the past year, with the National Health Service planning a wider rollout to more pharmaceutical companies and to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
  • “The goal, as STAT has previously reported, is to enable pharmaceutical companies to recover their costs and make a profit — without predicating this on large volumes of antibiotics being prescribed. Helen Boucher, Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, testified that this law would recognize these drugs “for their value, not for their use. It de-links incentives for overusing antibiotics.”

• The Government Accountability Office released “a new report on the agency’s key findings and recommendations with an eye toward helping federal agencies be better prepared for future emergencies. GAO has regularly reported on the accountability and effectiveness of the federal government’s $4.7 trillion pandemic response since 2020.”

• Per the White House,
  • “Today, in the continued efforts to fight the dangerous and deadly combination of xylazine mixed with fentanyl, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released a National Response Plan to coordinate a whole-of-government response against this threat. Earlier this spring, ONDCP Director Dr. Gupta used an executive designation authority to designate fentanyl combined with xylazine as an emerging threat to the United States and proactively address this dangerous threat head-on.”
  • “Read the full National Response Plan to Fentanyl Combined with Xylazine HERE.
  • “Read about the Biden-⁠Harris Administration’s efforts to crack down on illicit fentanyl supply chains HERE.
  • “Read the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy HERE.”

From the public health front —

• Federal News Network reports that twelve House of Representatives members are asking the Postal Service about steps being taken to protect letter carriers against the effects of high outdoor heat following the death of a letter carrier who passed away while delivering the mail in Texas.
  • “Eugene Gates Jr., a 66-year-old letter carrier in Texas, died June 20 while delivering mail during a heat wave with temperatures as high as 115 degrees. * * *
  • “The National Association of Letter Carriers, which represented Gates, said he collapsed and died in a customer’s yard while delivering mail. Gates, an Army veteran, served as a letter carrier for 36 years.
  • “Eugene was a dedicated letter carrier with a long and successful Postal Service career,” NALC National President Brian Renfroe said in a statement. “He will be greatly missed.”

• STAT News tells us,
  • Weight loss medications from Novo Nordisk are being investigated by the European Medicines Agency after several reports of suicidal risks were referred to the watchdog, Bloomberg News reports. The regulator is looking at adverse events noted by the Icelandic Medicines Agency, including two cases of suicidal thoughts linked to the drugs Saxenda and Ozempic. One additional case relating to thoughts of self-injury has been raised in connection with Saxenda. The agency is investigating the possible side effects in relation to patients who have used medicines containing the active ingredients semaglutide or liraglutide for weight loss. Novo’s hit weight loss drug Wegovy also contains semaglutide.
• The Bloomberg article adds,
  • “Wegovy is currently available in the US with a warning and precaution for suicidal behavior and ideation on the label. While clinical trials of Wegovy did not support an increased risk of suicidal behavior, suicidal ideation, or other psychiatric adverse events, clinical trials of other weight management drugs have reported suicidal behavior and ideation, a spokesperson for the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.
  • “If newly identified safety signals are identified, the FDA will determine what actions are appropriate after a thorough review of the body of evidence,” the spokesperson said.”

From the medical research front,

• According to the National Science Foundation —
  • “While it’s known that sleep plays a crucial role in strengthening memory, scientists are still decoding how the process plays out in the brain overnight.
  • “U.S. National Science Foundation-supported research led by scientists at UCLA and Tel Aviv University offers new evidence from inside the human brain supporting the dominant theory of how the brain consolidates memory during sleep.
  • “The researchers found that targeted deep brain stimulation during a critical time in the sleep cycle improved memory consolidation. The result came from a novel “closed loop” system that delivered electrical pulses in one brain region that activated the cerebral cortex, synchronized with brain activity recorded in another area, the hippocampus.
  • “The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, could offer new clues to how deep brain stimulation during sleep could help patients with memory disorders, said study co-author and physician-scientist Itzhak Fried of UCLA.”

From the Medicare front, NerdWallet identifies four Medicare policies that “should come with warning labels.” Number 1 is the Part B late enrollment penalty. The article encourages picking up Part B at the first opportunity, even if health expenses at the time are modest. Granted, this article is aimed at people, like the FEHBlog, who have Medicare without supplemental employer coverage. Nevertheless, federal employees should consider the advice too.

From the Rx coverage front

• Beckers Hospital Review notes
  • “The FDA is allowing 10 more lots of cisplatin from a China-based pharmaceutical company to be imported to the U.S. to ease the ongoing cancer drug shortage, Bloomberg reported July 10. The additional lots are set to arrive next week. 
  • “In June, federal regulators cleared four lots of cisplatin from Qilu Pharmaceutical. While the version of the drug is unapproved in the U.S., it is similar to the approved version distributed across the country. 
  • “We will continue the importation until manufacturers can meet all needs,” Chanapa Tantibanchachai, an FDA spokesperson, told Bloomberg.
  • “Shortages of the essential cancer drug began in February and have caused some cancer centers to ration cisplatin and carboplatin, another cancer drug in shortage, treatments for patients. More recently, there have been signs of supplies stabilizing.” 

• Fierce Healthcare discusses a recent HHS report on approaches to avoiding drug shortages.

• Following up on its recent report about the lead-covered cabling problem in our country, the Wall Street Journal points out
  • “Supplies are running out for a key antidote for life-threatening lead poisoning.
  • “The drug, named dimercaprol, has been a go-to treatment for years for the worst cases of lead poisoning. But doctors have had to scrounge for dwindling doses since the medicine’s sole manufacturer for the U.S. declared bankruptcy in February.
  • “Now that some parts of the country don’t have any supplies left, doctors have been forced to turn to other, less preferred treatments.
  • “We’re using whatever we can get, knowing it will help, but not knowing if it’s doing as good of a job,” said Dr. Diane Calello, who directs the New Jersey Poison Control Center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.”

In U.S. healthcare business news

• Beckers Payer Issues tells us
  • “The Cigna Group’s network of behavioral health providers grew by more than 30 percent in 2022, according to the company’s 2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance Report.
  • “The July report said the behavioral health network has grown to include more than 300,000 mental health and substance use providers, doubling its size over the past four years. The company also nearly doubled its virtual care network, which has grown to include more than 163,000 virtual behavioral health providers. In-network providers who support cultural and race-related counseling were increased.
  • “For behavioral health providers that specifically work with children, Cigna added 27,000 providers to its network in 2022, or an increase of 19 percent. It also increased the numbers of facilities treating children by 8 percent to 2,700 total.”

• The Wall Street Journal delves into high-priced “clinics cater[ing] to a growing number of people obsessed with fighting aging.”
  • “Practitioners at Healthy Longevity Clinic, which has locations in Boca Raton, Fla., and Prague, build patients a personalized “longevity road map.” Those maps can include recommendations for diet, exercise, sleep and supplements. Patients are encouraged to stick with the program for at least a year, over which time their bill can run between $25,000 to more than $100,000, says Petr Sramek, the clinic’s chief executive.
  • “Longevity-clinic treatments aren’t often covered by health insurance. Some providers say they work with insurers to get coverage for medications or laboratory tests. 
  • “Many clinics use membership-based models in an effort to keep client loads low enough that providers can spend time with each patient. Others are fee-for-service or use a combination of the two.”