Amgen Plows Ahead With Costly, Highly Toxic Cancer Dosing Despite FDA Challenge
By Arthur Allen
The FDA told Amgen to test whether a quarter-dose of its lung cancer drug worked as well as the amount recommended on the product label. It did and with fewer side effects. But Amgen is sticking to the higher dose — which earns it an additional $180,000 a year per patient.
Daily Edition for Monday, May 6, 2024
Opioid Settlement Deal Has A Curious Twist: California announced a tentative settlement Friday with a pharmaceutical company over its alleged role in the opioid crisis — the same company Gov. Gavin Newsom is partnering with to produce lower-cost opioid overdose reversal drugs. That means the state could hand any funds it receives from the settlement right back to the company. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle and CalMatters.
Stranded in the ER, Seniors Await Hospital Care and Suffer Avoidable Harm
By Judith Graham
Many older adults who need hospital care are getting stuck in emergency room limbo — sometimes for more than a day. The long ER waits for seniors who are frail, with multiple medical issues, lead to a host of additional medical problems.
Could Better Inhalers Help Patients, and the Planet?
By Martha Bebinger, WBUR
Puff inhalers can be lifesavers for people with asthma and other respiratory diseases, but some types release potent greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. That, in turn, worsens wildfires, contributes to air pollution, and intensifies allergy seasons — which can increase the need for inhalers. Some doctors are helping patients switch to more eco-sensitive inhalers.
Journalists Delve Into Climate Change, Medicaid ‘Unwinding,’ and the Gap in Mortality Rates
KFF Health News and California Healthline staffers made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Daily Edition for Friday, May 3, 2024
Tuberculosis death, HIV drugs, ACA eligibility for ‘Dreamers,’ layoffs, mental health, disabilities, bird flu, and more are in the news.
Oh, Dear! Baby Gear! Why Are the Manuals So Unclear?
By Darius Tahir
Sure, new parents are an anxious lot. But instruction manuals for devices meant to keep the baby safe and healthy are daunting and add to the anxiety. Why are they so confusing?
Bird Flu Is Bad for Poultry and Dairy Cows. It’s Not a Dire Threat for Most of Us — Yet.
By Amy Maxmen
Cattle across the country are infected by the H5N1 bird flu. The virus isn’t spreading among people — but if it evolves to do that, fears of another pandemic could be realized.
La gripe aviar es mala para las aves de corral y las vacas lecheras. No es una amenaza grave para la mayoría de nosotros… por ahora
By Amy Maxmen
Las pruebas han detectado el virus en el ganado en nueve estados, principalmente en Texas y Nuevo México, y más recientemente en Colorado. Una persona ha dado positivo para el H5N1.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Abortion Access Changing Again in Florida and Arizona
A six-week abortion ban took effect in Florida this week, dramatically restricting access to the procedure not just in the nation’s third-most-populous state but across the South. Patients from states with even more restrictive bans had been flooding in since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Meanwhile, the CEO of the health behemoth UnitedHealth Group appeared before committees in both the House and Senate, where lawmakers grilled him about the February cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare and how its ramifications are being felt months later. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachana Pradhan of KFF Health News join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
