Welcome, John King

Doraville police chief John King was sworn in as acting insurance commissioner by Governor Kemp, either filling in or taking over for Jim Beck, who is currently suspended. Of note: Born in Mexico, King is Georgia’s first statewide Hispanic* official. A former member of the National Guard, he saw combat in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and later put his life on the line as an Atlanta police officer.

* Hispanic statewide? Statewide Hispanic? You know what we mean, right?

Atlanta to ban more smoking

The Atlanta City Council has approved a ban on smoking (and vaping!) in restaurants and bars — as well as in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; say good-bye to those smoking lounges.

Sparks, they be a-flyin’

So there are two big trials involving opioids: One in Oklahoma (originally involving several pharma companies, but now down to just Johnson & Johnson), and the big, multi-jurisdiction event in Ohio.

Those sparks were flying in OK, CNN reports, as the state’s attorney went at it with an expert witness for J&J.

The exchange grew so heated that [attorney Brad] Beckworth threw his hands in the air after constant objections by Johnson & Johnson lawyers. “At some point, I have to be able to cross examine this guy,” Beckworth snapped.

And look for even more fireworks in Ohio, where the guy leading the lawsuits against opioid makers says he expects to bankrupt those companies. No, we’re not exaggerating … and he’s the same guy who won the 1998 case against Big Tobacco, Mike Moore.

“Ohio is losing $4 billion or $5 billion a year from the opioid epidemic. And they’re losing 5,000 or 6,000 people a year from overdose deaths. So when a jury hears the evidence in this case, they’re not gonna award just a couple hundred million dollars. It may be $100 billion. And whoever amongst these companies thinks they can stand up to that? Good luck.”

Going up

Remember when we heard that drug makers were going to be lowering their prices? Ah, those halcyon days of innocence. Turns out that “More than 3,400 drugs have boosted their prices in the first six months of 2019, an increase of 17% in the number of drug hikes from a year earlier.”

Ignorance is bliss

Speaking of drug pricing, the pharmaceutical makers still really, really don’t want to include prices in their ads. One reason? They say it would confuse consumers. (Of course, those same consumers don’t seem to be terribly confused by car ads — MSRP, financing, leasing, “nicely equipped,” and so on.)

And we’d keep the headline simple, too

What do we do if there’s an interesting pharma story, but it’s also on a really sensitive topic? We just link to it without comment.

Sounds like fiction (but isn’t)

This story sounds like the plot of a mid-tier thriller: Boy has rare condition that will confine him to a wheelchair. Scientists replicate that condition in zebrafish, then try various treatments until they find one that works. They give it to the boy… and “he’s now playing basketball and helping coach soccer.”

And this sounds like it’s out of a Neal Stephenson* novel: The FDA is warning that a whole bunch of Medtronic’s MiniMed insulin pumps are vulnerable to hackers. The pumps (click the link to see the list) are being recalled, and the FDA says “Patients with diabetes using these models should switch their insulin pump to models that are better equipped to protect against these potential risks.”

* A little bit Snowcrash, a little bit The Diamond Age