- California Healthline Original Stories 2
- Opioid Epidemic Spurs Rethink On Medication And Addiction
- A Crisis With Little Data: States Begin To Count Drug-Dependent Babies
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Opioid Epidemic Spurs Rethink On Medication And Addiction
Some say the usual methods — abstinence and therapy — may not be enough. (Anna Gorman, )
A Crisis With Little Data: States Begin To Count Drug-Dependent Babies
Getting good information is critical to figure out where resources need to go to treat babies dependent on drugs. Pennsylvania relies on old statistics and incomplete data, but that may be changing. (Ben Allen, WITF, )
More News From Across The State
Lawmakers Push Decision On 'Tampon Tax' Bill To Next Month
Sponsors of the bill say the "tampon tax" poses a particularly unfair financial burden on the 4.6 million women living in poverty in California. Enactment of the measure would reduce state and local revenues by an estimated $20 million a year.
Reuters:
California Lawmakers Delay 'Tampon Tax' Exemption Bill
A California Assembly panel delayed action on Monday on a bill to end sales taxes on tampons and sanitary napkins, an exemption already enacted in five other states in a growing movement against what sponsors say is a tax that unjustly targets women. The measure has garnered bipartisan support in the Democratic-controlled California legislature, but the Assembly's Revenue and Taxation Committee placed the bill on the panel's "suspense file," meaning its fate will be determined early next month. (4/4)
The Sacramento Bee:
California Tampon Tax Must Go, Legislators Say
Rarely do Democrats and Republicans find common ground on tax policy, but tampons offer an exception. With a bill to exempt feminine hygiene products from sales taxes headed to its first vote on Monday, legislators from both parties gathered at the Capitol in support of lifting a tax they said punishes women. They got support from a member of the state Board of Equalization – the tax board has backed lifting the policy – and a pair of precocious college student twins. (White, 4/4)
The Huffington Post:
‘I’m Tired Of Being Taxed For Being A Woman’
Activists rallied Monday at the California state capitol building in Sacramento to push for a bill ending the state tax on tampons and other menstrual products. The bill, introduced earlier this year, would exempt tampons and pads from state sales tax. The legislation’s authors, Assemblymembers Cristina Garcia (D) and Ling Ling Chang (R), are now working on an amendment to add more female health products, such as cups and sponges, to the no-tax list. In 40 states, including California, tampons, pads and similar products are subject to sales tax, which generally means that they’re not classified as necessities. (Reilly, 4/4)
Calif.-Based Gilead To Buy Nimbus' Experimental Metabolic Disorder Pill
Gilead has been sitting on billions generated by its lucrative hepatitis C medicines and could pay up to $1.2 billion in the deal.
The Associated Press:
Gilead Paying Up To $1.2B For Nimbus Unit, Drug Candidate
Biologic drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc. said Monday that it will buy a subsidiary of Nimbus Therapeutics LLC and its experimental pill for an increasingly common metabolic disorder that causes life-threatening fat buildup in the liver. Gilead, based in Foster City, California, will pay $400 million for Nimbus Apollo Inc. Parent company Nimbus Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, could receive another $800 million if Nimbus Apollo’s drug development program meets certain milestones in testing results and medicine approval and sales. (Johnson, 4/4)
The San Francisco Business TImes:
Gilead's $1.2B Deal Just The Latest Between Tiny Nimbus And A Biotech Giant
If you were to name the most-renowned biotech companies that a life sciences startup could target for partnerships, Genentech Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc. would easily top the list. As of today, the 20-employee Cambridge, Mass., startup Nimbus Therapeutics has the distinction of forging a deal with both of those firms. (Seiffert, 4/4)
In other marketplace news —
The San Francisco Business Times:
East Bay Robotics Company Wins More FDA Approvals For Exoskeleton For Stroke, Spinal Injury Victims
Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc., a Richmond-based company that makes robotic exoskeleton devices that help people rehabilitate after suffering strokes or spinal cord injuries, says it has won expanded regulatory clearance for its devices. (Rauber, 4/4)
The San Francisco Business Times:
Strength In Numbers — Or Why A Hot, Young Biotech And A Nonprofit Are Taking Aim At New ALS Targets
It's difficult to run a clinical trial tackling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease perhaps best known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Studies take time, and time is not something ALS patients have to give. The muscle-robbing disease typically kills patients two to five years after diagnosis. (Leuty, 4/4)
Bloomberg:
Edwards Hits Record As Aortic Valves Save More Lives In Study
Edwards Lifesciences Corp. surged to a record after researchers showed its latest heart valve lowered the risk of death and stroke in a broader group of people suffering from severe aortic stenosis, a finding that could swell the market for the products to $5 billion. Shares climbed 19 percent to $107.19 at 12:31 p.m. in New York, after gaining as much as 20 percent, the biggest intraday increase ever for the Irvine, California-based company. They had risen 28 percent in the past 12 months through Friday as investors waited for results of the study testing the heart valve, called Sapien 3. (Cortez, 4/4)
As 'Terrifying' Fentanyl Crisis Sweeps Into The State, Officials Zero In On China As Supplier
Chinese suppliers are flooding the U.S. and Canada with both the extremely potent drug and the machinery used to create decentralized production labs. At least 10 overdose deaths in California have been linked to fentanyl.
STAT:
‘Truly Terrifying:’ China Floods US With Deadly Fentanyl, As Overdoses Spike
The dozen packages were shipped from China to mail centers and residences in Southern California. One box was labeled as a “Hole Puncher.” In fact, it was a quarter-ton pill press, which federal investigators allege was destined for a suburban Los Angeles drug lab. The other packages, shipped throughout January and February, contained materials for manufacturing fentanyl, an opioid so potent that in some forms it can be deadly if touched. When it comes to the illegal sale of fentanyl, most of the attention has focused on Mexican cartels that are adding the drug to heroin smuggled into the United States. But Chinese suppliers are providing both raw fentanyl and the machinery necessary for the assembly-line production of the drug powering a terrifying and rapid rise of fatal overdoses across the United States and Canada, according to drug investigators and court documents. (Armstrong, 4/5)
The Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Fentanyl-Linked Overdose Deaths Rise To 10; DEA Opens Tip Line
As Sacramento’s fentanyl crisis continues growing, with 42 overdoses and 10 deaths, law enforcement announced stepped-up efforts Monday to investigate the source of the region’s contaminated painkillers. “It’s alarming to have 42 overdoses in a short period of time,” said Casey Rettig, a San Francisco-based special agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. (Buck, 4/4)
Reuters:
Narcotic Fentanyl Linked To At Least 10 California Overdose Deaths
At least 42 drug overdoses in the past two weeks have been reported in northern California, 10 of them fatal, in what authorities on Monday called the biggest cluster of poisonings linked to the powerful synthetic narcotic fentanyl ever to hit the U.S. West Coast. The rash of overdoses, which Sacramento County public health authorities began to report on March 24, have been centered in and around the California capital. Nine of the fatal cases were reported there, with the tenth occurring in neighboring Yolo County. (Gorman, 4/4)
Experts Warn Of Looming Social, Economic Catastrophe Of Obesity-Related Deaths
Researchers say decades worth of gains in medical technology are no match for the nation's obesity epidemic. No life-prolonging improvements in medical care or public health measures are likely to be able to compensate for the life-shortening effects of obesity, they say.
The Los Angeles Times:
Will Obesity Reverse The Life-Span Gains Made Over Decades Of Health Triumphs?
New statistics on death rates in the United States appear to confirm a grim prediction — that obesity is reversing decades of steady expansion in Americans' life spans, according to a Harvard University researcher calling for more and better research and the urgent adoption of policies that could improve Americans' food and drink choices. (Healy, 4/4)
Meanwhile, San Francisco and Oakland make new efforts to get a soda tax back on the ballot —
KQED:
San Francisco, Oakland Working To Put Soda Tax Before Voters
Berkeley was the trend setter in 2014 when voters there approved the first a soda tax in the U.S. with a resounding 75 percent of the vote. That same year San Francisco voters rejected a soda tax. But supporters were not deterred. Now, new efforts have resumed in San Francisco and in Oakland to move through a tax with a goal of fighting the obesity and diabetes epidemic. Both cities seem to be applying lessons from the Berkeley playbook to see the taxes through. (Aliferis, 4/4)
A Quest To Prove Spinal Cord Injuries Aren't A Life-Long Sentence
A UCLA researcher is offering a glimmer of hope with his work with electrical currents and the spinal cord. Physicians and patient advocates say that it is one of the first approaches that may help large numbers of patients in the near future.
STAT:
A Dogged Quest To Fix Broken Spinal Cords Pays Off With New Hope For The Paralyzed
There are tiny rat treadmills in the lab. And jars of Nutella, also for the rats. There are video cameras, heaps of electrodes, and instruments for slicing frozen brain tissue. And in the center of it all: Reggie Edgerton, a 75-year-old physiologist [ at the University of California, Los Angeles] who has spent four decades on a stubborn quest to prove, in the face of scientific ridicule, that severed spinal cords can be jolted back to life — and that paralyzed patients need not be paralyzed forever. Now, he’s got the data to prove it. (McFarling, 3/30)
UCSD Public Health Expert Appointed To National Cancer 'Moonshot' Panel
Dr. Maria Elena Martinez, one of 28 scientists named to the blue ribbon panel, is widely known for trying to reduce the disparities that exist among many minorities when it comes to the prevention and treatment of cancer.
The San DIego Union-Tribune:
UCSD Scientist Named Cancer "Moonshot" Adviser
The Obama administration has named a public health expert from UC San Diego to a blue ribbon panel that will advise the government on the newly-created National Cancer 'Moonshot' Initiative. (Robbins, 4/4)
In other news from across the state —
The Ventura County Star:
More Cardiomyopathy Cases Confirmed But At Lessening Rate
Five more illnesses involving a sudden, unexplained heart condition have been confirmed over two weeks in Ventura County but the rate of new cases is tapering off, a public health officer said Monday. The cluster of cardiomyopathy illnesses in the county has reached 17 cases, many emerging in February, said Dr. Robert Levin of the Ventura County Public Health Department. The cases triggered an ongoing investigation involving county, state and federal agencies and aimed at uncovering origins of the cluster. (Kisken, 4/4)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Kern High School Board Glosses Over 'Anti-Vaxxer' Discussion
Kern High School District board members glossed over a board discussion item Monday, despite an anti-vaccination group’s warnings that the district could face lawsuits over a controversial state mandate that all students receive immunizations. (Pierce, 4/4)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Outreach Clinic Hosts Health Fair For The Community
On April 9, Outreach Clinic, a non-profit organization that addresses health disparities and provides health screening, education and awareness, will host its 3rd annual Health Fair at the Community House at Central Park at Mill Creek beginning at 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Outreach Clinic, composed of physicians and pre-health students, has partnered with Dignity Health, San Joaquin Hospital and the Kern County Public Health Department. Together, they will provide health screenings for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, child vaccinations and health education. Organizations, including Omni Health and Clinica Sierra Vista, will also attend to help participants enroll in insurance programs. (Sanchez, 4/4)
Final Rule Provides Slight Increase In Medicare Advantage Payments
The decision, which came after heavy lobbying, was a bit lower than the administration initially suggested. On another part of the rule, however, the administration delayed efforts to cut payments to employer-sponsored Medicare Advantage plans.
The Wall Street Journal:
Federal Regulators Issue Medicare Advantage Rates For 2017
Federal regulators said Monday that payments to insurers that offer private Medicare plans to older Americans would rise slightly, but somewhat less than the government indicated earlier this year. The increase represents a boost for companies who offer the plans under Medicare Advantage, the program in which beneficiaries can get Medicare policies from private companies, which are then reimbursed by the federal government. (Radnofsky and Armour, 4/4)
In other national health care news —
The New York Times:
Despite Fears, Affordable Care Act Has Not Uprooted Employer Coverage
The Affordable Care Act was aimed mainly at giving people better options for buying health insurance on their own. There were widespread predictions that employers would leap at the chance to drop coverage and send workers to fend for themselves. But those predictions were largely wrong. Most companies, and particularly large employers, that offered coverage before the law have stayed committed to providing health insurance. (Abelson, 4/4)
The Associated Press:
Fever: Federal Report Says Global Warming Making US Sick
Man-made global warming is making America sicker, and it's only going to get worse, according to a new federal government report. The 332-page report issued Monday by the Obama administration said global warming will make the air dirtier, water more contaminated and food more tainted. It warned of diseases, such as those spread by ticks and mosquitoes, longer allergy seasons, and thousands of heat wave deaths. (Borenstein, 4/5)
The Associated Press:
Senate: Few Answers On US Theft That Risked Data Of Millions
Senate investigators indicated Monday they've received few answers from the Obama administration after a laptop and portable hard drives — likely containing names and Social Security numbers of millions — were stolen from a federal building in Washington state. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the Republican chair of the Senate government affairs panel, asked Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Monday if the drives stolen from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement in Olympia, Washington, were ever recovered. (4/5)
The Hill:
Alexander: Cures Bill Deal Could Be Reached By End Of The Week
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Monday that a medical innovation bill could be ready for the Senate floor as early as next week. The bill is the Senate’s companion to the House-passed 21st Century Cures Act, which seeks to speed up the Food and Drug Administration’s approvals of new drugs and devices and boost funding for medical research. (Sullivan, 4/4)