Highlights of the important and interesting from the world of healthcare:
Prospects dimming for plaque fighters? Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and a half-dozen drug companies trying to fight Alzheimer’s disease by slowing or stopping clumps of protein — plaques — from forming in the brain has resulted in a string of study failures since 2003, according to Bloomberg. This week, Eli Lilly & Co.’s semagacestat became the latest failure.
Danger! Healthcare reform! Every venture capital sector has its multimillion-dollar smoking holes-in-the-ground. Life sciences is no different. But novelty may be the best risk strategy.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Stryker eying Boston Scientific unit. Stryker Corp., the maker of artificial hips and knees in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is in advanced talks to buy Boston Scientific Corp.’s pain-management device unit for about $1.5 billion, three people with knowledge of the transaction told Bloomberg. An agreement for the business, also called the neuromodulation unit, may be announced next week.
Shredded. More than 100 pages of medical records related to a veteran’s heart condition and benefit claims went missing in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The culprit? An employee who had been fired from the Veterans of Foreign Wars agency had shredded the documents after deciding to go “paperless.”
Waste not, want not. Leaders of the failed St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City are accused of wasting millions while the hospital teetered on bankruptcy.
Just hit “delete.” Determining infection rate performance for hospitals in Missouri could pose a challenge. Since 2006 when such data was first posted online, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has been deleting it on a quarterly basis.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Howdy, partner. Aetna and CVS Caremark will cooperatively manage drug claims for the health plan’s 10.3 million members with pharmacy benefits.
Dr. Frank Ryan passes. The Associated Press is reporting that celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan, who made headlines for performing multiple surgeries on reality TV star Heidi Montag, has died in a car crash. He was 50 years old.
Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and a half dozen competitors are committed to a research strategy for Alzheimer’s disease that has resulted in a string of study failures, the most recent involving Eli Lilly & Co.
A dozen potential products designed to slow or stop clumps of protein from forming in the brain, a condition linked to the disease since 1906, have failed in mid- to late-stage testing since 2003. The experimental drug from Lilly, semagacestat, didn’t improve cognition in a study and worsened the ability of patients to perform daily activities, the Indianapolis-based company said yesterday.
Lilly said it would no longer develop the product, one of the company’s two Alzheimer’s drugs in the final stage of testing usually required for U.S. regulatory approval. The Lilly failure, on top of seven years of other unsuccessful tests, calls into question ongoing research into similar treatments and leaves patients with little hope for the future.
“This is definitely going to make people a lot more pessimistic about many drugs” already in late-stage development, P. Murali Doraiswamy, head of the biological psychiatry division at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, said in a telephone interview. “This will cast a shadow on those trials as well.”
