HHS sues Gilead

Taxpayers funded the research that went into the company’s HIV-prevention drugs, and Gilead charges up to $20,000 per year per person for them. And that, says HHS, means taxpayers should be getting some of that money back.

Bigger, better flu vaccine for seniors

The FDA has approved a new high-dose quadrivalent flu vaccine, Fluzone High-Dose, specifically for people over 65. It will be available for the 2020-21 North American flu season. (The trivalent version is currently available.)

Cool medical news: Diabetes transplants

People with a severe form of type 1 diabetes may need a transplant of islets of Langerhans – clumps of cells that produce glucose-regulating hormones. But transplanting those islets is tough, and most of the them die before ‘taking hold.’

Now Swiss researchers, in between making great chocolate and cheese*, have found a way “to create new, more robust islets that would withstand the stress of transplantation better than natural islets” by using cells from a placental membrane, which — you know what? You can read the details here.

* And cool knives

When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything’s a nail

Donald Trump is considering a trade war with Switzerland — starting by putting tariffs on Swiss pharmaceuticals. That would, of course, mean drugs from Roche and Novartis would cost Americans more.

Although such a move is far from certain, any tariffs are likely to hurt U.S. patients in particular.

Why start yet another trade war? “Washington is reportedly bothered by the high export surplus of Switzerland in the trade in medicines.” (Translated from the German article.)

Tick bill moves along

Lost in all the other news out of Washington is this bright spot: A bi-partisan (!) bill that would work to fight Lyme disease.

The Kay Hagan Tick Act would require HHS to develop a national strategy to fight it and other tick-borne diseases, including funding both federal and state efforts “to improve data collection and analysis, support early detection and diagnosis, improve treatment, and raise awareness.”

Fun fact: There is a human vaccine against Lyme disease, LYMErix, but it was pulled from the market in 2002 because of low demand and potential side effects. You can get it for your dog, though!

Run

Even a little is good for you.

[R]unners had a 27% lower risk of early death from any cause during the follow-up periods, and a 30% and 23% lower risk of early death from cardiovascular problems or cancer respectively.

CRISPR vs cancer

Patient has cancer. What to do? How about taking some immune cells from the patient and (as we are living in a science-fiction universe) use CRISPR to edit the cells’ DNA to ‘teach’ them to recognize and fight the cancer cells?

After two to three months, one patient’s cancer continued to worsen and another was stable. The third patient was treated too recently to know how she’ll fare. The plan is to treat 15 more patients and assess safety and how well it works.

The long read: “They are doing it because they can” edition

“The absurdly high cost of insulin, explained”

[T]he US is a global outlier on money spent on the drug, representing only 15 percent of the global insulin market and generating almost half of the pharmaceutical industry’s insulin revenue. According to a recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine, in the 1990s Medicaid paid between $2.36 and $4.43 per unit of insulin; by 2014, those prices more than tripled, depending on the formulation.

Elsewhere: Medicaid expansion

While some states are looking for Medicaid waivers that will allow them to cover fewer people while expanding Medicaid, the District of Columbia is going the opposite way: It requested — and got — a waiver to allow Medicaid to cover more, specifically more mental health services.

The waiver…

…broadens treatment services available to Medicaid beneficiaries living in the District of Columbia diagnosed with serious mental illness and/or serious emotional disturbance. At the same time, CMS is approving the District’s request to begin providing new services for its beneficiaries diagnosed with substance use disorder.