Mylan CEO: We Wish We Had Better Anticipated Fallout, But Price Hikes Were Warranted
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch will face congressional fire Wednesday at a hearing to investigate the EpiPen price spike. In prepared testimony, Bresch defends the costs as a necessary investment. Meanwhile, Bresch's mother, as head of National Association of State Boards of Education, spearheaded an effort to get EpiPens in schools.
The Associated Press:
Mylan CEO Set To Defend EpiPen Prices Amid Public Outcry
The head of pharmaceutical company Mylan is defending the cost for life-saving EpiPens, signaling the company has no plans to lower prices despite a public outcry and questions from skeptical lawmakers. "Price and access exist in a balance, and we believe we have struck that balance," Heather Bresch says in prepared testimony released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ahead of her Wednesday appearance before the panel. (Jalonick, 9/21)
USA Today:
Mylan CEO's Mother Used Position With Education Group To Boost EpiPen Sales Nationwide
After Gayle Manchin took over the National Association of State Boards of Education in 2012, she spearheaded an unprecedented effort that encouraged states to require schools to purchase medical devices that fight life-threatening allergic reactions. The association’s move helped pave the way for Mylan Specialty, maker of EpiPens, to develop a near monopoly in school nurses’ offices. Eleven states drafted laws requiring epinephrine auto-injectors. Nearly every other state recommended schools stock them after what the White House called the "EpiPen Law" in 2013 gave funding preference to those that did. (O'Donnell, 9/20)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Slow Progress On Bill To Battle Zika And Prevent Shutdown
Top congressional leaders said Tuesday that negotiators are making slow but steady progress on a must-do spending bill to prevent a government shutdown next week and fund the battle against the Zika virus. Some tricky issues remain, but optimism was building that an agreement might be unveiled in the next day or two. Congressional aides said that progress included an offer from Republicans to drop especially controversial provisions that would have eased pesticide regulations under the Clean Water Act and blocked tighter regulations on the length of workweeks for truckers. (Taylor, 9/20)
Bloomberg:
Inside The 10-Year, $1 Billion Battle For The Next Critical Antibiotic
In a cramped lab in rural Pennsylvania, surrounded by technicians in obligatory white lab coats and fume hoods leaking an occasional acrid smell, Neil Pearson holds up a plastic model of a chemical compound that resembles a spidery piece of Lego. Pearson, a 54-year-old chemist and senior fellow at British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithkline Plc, explains how he spent more than a decade tinkering with chemical compounds before engineering a molecule that may yield the industry’s first truly new antibiotic in 30 years to fight the rise of superbugs that risk killing an extra 10 million people every year by 2050. (Baker, 9/20)
The Washington Post:
‘Superbug’ MRSA May Be Spreading Through Tainted Poultry
A new form of a dangerous "superbug" may be spreading to humans through contaminated poultry that people handle or eat, according to a study published Wednesday. Researchers focused on a newly identified strain of the bacterium known as MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, that they found in people in Denmark. Although most individuals who become infected with MRSA don't get it from food, the study suggests that this poultry-associated strain may be more easily transmitted from food to people. (Sun, 9/21)
NPR:
Fitness Trackers Didn't Help People Lose Weight
Fitness trackers remain wildly popular, but do they make us fit? Maybe not, according to a study that asked overweight or obese young adults to use the tiny tracking tools to lose weight. The 470 people in the study were put on a low-calorie diet and asked to exercise more. They all started losing weight. Six months in, half the group members started self-reporting their diet and exercise. The other half were given fitness trackers to monitor their activity. After two years, both groups were equally active. But the people with the fitness trackers lost less weight. (Ross, 9/20)