Behind the scenes of this evening’s #STATUSList celebration dinner at the beautiful Boston Athenaeum. STAT is bringing some of the biggest names in the life sciences together in one room.

When drug companies complain that costs being taken out of their revenue line don't always make it to patients, they sometimes have a point.

Biosimilars haven’t always yielded lower out-of-pocket costs for patients, study finds statnews.com/pharmalot/2024…

This is terribly sad news. Stephen was so knowledgeable and incredibly generous with his time. My condolences to his family.

Madrigal Statement on the Passing of Dr. Stephen Harrison globenewswire.com/news-release/2…

Interesting tidbits from a press conf today on #H5N1 #birdflu by US agencies
—NIAID-funded researchers found commercial milk that was PCR-pos for H5, but could not grow live virus from it. (Good)
—USDA & CDC admitted some farmers won't let them test.
statnews.com/2024/04/24/h5n…

Novo is discontinuing an insulin after cutting its price, highlighting a key gap in policy efforts: Even if officials get pharma to lower prices, companies can choose to just pull the drug, without guaranteeing someone else continues to make the compound
statnews.com/2024/04/24/nov…

Our UC San Diego Health study is the first randomized, prospective evaluation of AI-drafted physician messaging, and found it:

⏱️ did not save time, but
🧠 did ↓ cognitive burden
💙 clinicians liked it!

(2/9)

Press release: health.ucsd.edu/news/press-rel…

Full text: jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

I've been listening to this episode for like 20 minutes and my brain is leaking out my ears. Also: Tucker doesn't use email and says he hasn't used the internet in a really long time twitter.com/CitizenFreePre…

Two reports out this morning show spending on GLP-1 drugs have surged, and is set to climb still more this year and beyond.

Health entities spent $38.6 billion on Ozempic/Wegovy last year (double the year before), making it the top-seller among all drugs
statnews.com/2024/04/24/wei…

Biogen's Alzheimer's drug launch on 'steady pace' as logistical hurdles recede statnews.com/2024/04/24/bio…

Massive amounts of H5N1 vaccine would be needed if there’s a bird flu pandemic. Can we make enough? statnews.com/2024/04/24/h5n… via Helen Branswell 🇨🇦

It happened! Q1 2024 sales:

Evrysdi (small molecule): $389M
Spinraza (ASO): $341.3M
Zolgensma (gene therapy): $295M

$RHHBY $NVS $IONS $BIIB

$BIIB Q1 earnings:

Leqembi $19M - Miss expected but at top end of the (lower) whisper number. 'Significant increase in new patient starts observed in March...'

Skyclarys $78M beat.

Total revenue $2.29 billion, small miss on what looks like Spinraza weakness.

Adjusted EPS

What’s going on here? FDA is broadening surveillance of milk for fragments of DNA from DEAD virus as way to find which dairy farms have outbreaks not detected by USDA. When viruses are killed by pasteurization harmless fragments of DNA is always detectable
washingtonpost.com/health/2024/04…

How the FTC's noncompete agreement ban could impact health care statnews.com/2024/04/23/ftc…

New use for fluoxetine (Prozac).

It treated refractory bed-wetting in children in this RCT, but the benefit declined over time (in primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis):
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36043350

Need to weigh against risks of antidep in children

#psychiatry #Pediatrics

This isn't good, folks.
I'm not worried about H5N1 transmission to humans (yet) but the Dept. of Agriculture pathetic lack of transparency, how long it took for the genomes to be released, lack of testing asymptomatic cattle......
All detracts from 'confidence'

What a difference a few days can make. Notice shifting language from U.S. FDA from last week (“continually proven to inactivate”) to this week (“very likely to inactivate…though no studies have been done”). What’s next? Who’s in charge?

I don’t know of any CEO that has viewed noncompetes as enforceable for years now. At least FTC will get a win here since it has chosen its M&A battles so poorly ftc.gov/news-events/ne…

H5N1 flu virus outbreak in cows likely started earlier than thought, ⁦Helen Branswell 🇨🇦⁩ writes. statnews.com/2024/04/23/h5n…

Next time you have one of those days where you’re frustrated and thinking, “Why am I having such a hard time with this thing I’m normally very good at?” I want you to remember that this is a Picasso.