TOP STORIES
More details on the predictions of Aetna acquiring Humana or Cigna – and why Aetna is simply a good bet in 2015.
Aetna’s team sees any outcome of King v. Burwell—even a negative one—as the vehicle for a legislative fix for healthcare reform. In addition, Gupte suggested that Aetna’s aggressive investment into ACOs is “gaining steam with health systems and providers catalyzed by the CMS proposed regulation to value-based care.”
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
So superbug startups are going to need a little follow-on funding: to the tune of $37 billion over the next 10 years. And there’s this unique funding model:
He proposed giving companies that already have the “highest priority antibiotics” in their pipelines a “lump-sum” payment. This would “delink” profitability from sales volumes, lowering the risk of developing a novel antibiotic as well as reducing the incentive to oversell the drug once it is on the market.
LIFE SCIENCE
Puma Biotechnology Founder and CEO Alan Auerbach’s net worth fell $250 million (don’t worry, he’ll likely survive being worth a mere $940 million).
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
MPM Capital has closed on a $400 million fund to invest in early-stage life science companies.
Gelesis has hit the pause button on its IPO.
Here’s the checkpoint inhibitor cancer research that matters at ASCO.
Unique wrinkle in the path for Vertex: patient power made a difference.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb-AbbVie multiple myeloma treatment, elotuzumab, is showing promise.
Good news for Roche’s lung-cancer immunotherapy: it reduced the risk of death by 53 percent in those with the highest levels of the biomarker, compared with those treated by chemotherapy.
Precision medicine works – even for children with kidney cancer.
PAYERS-PROVIDERS
Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center won’t merge after all.
University of Minnesota is days away from starting to repair its reputation on human research studies.
I say no. But they’re asking the question: Will Blue Shield of California eventually convert to for-profit?
Here’s what makes smokers quit: the threat of losing money.
TECH
A lawsuit against FitBit says its sleep tracking is bogus.
Price-transparency tool MDSave has raised $14 million.
Health informatics company TeraMedica was bought by Fujifilm Medical System.
Philips and Banner Health say telehealth works for them: it cut cost of care in a pilot for 27 percent.
POLITICS
Progress on telehealth legislation in Connecticut.
A LITTLE EXTRA
One-person startups, remote works and random, independent-minded geeks unite! A new study says people who work in co-working spaces are happier than those in regular office spaces. Why?
- People who use coworking spaces see their work as meaningful
- They have more job control.
- They feel part of a community.
Our advice to traditional companies who want to learn from coworking spaces is to give people the space and support to be their authentic best selves. The result will be employees who feel more committed to your organization, and are more likely to bring their best energy and ideas to the office each day. Even if it is corporate headquarters.
The Morning Read provides a 24-hour wrap up of everything else healthcare’s innovators need to know about the business of medicine (and beyond). The author of The Read published it but all full-time MedCity News journalists contribute to its content.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
