- Image by Marxchivist via Flickr
Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of health care:
Health reform can’t be left to the states: While many big policy changes in America are best-served to happen in the “laboratory” of the state level, allowing for a sort of trial-and-error of democracy, health reform isn’t one of them–if you accept the idea that universal (or near-universal) coverage is a goal of reform, that is. The reason is pretty simple: Unlike the federal government, states can’t run up deficits. So when bad economic times come, which they always will, states will be forced to cut public spending, and that means cutting health subsidies for the less-fortunate who can’t afford coverage, Ezra Klein writes.
These cuts have already begun happening in numerous states, Kaiser Health News reports. A Minnesota program, for example, that covers adults who earn less than $8,000 per year, is set to expire next month unless a political fix can be found. So don’t look for states to bail us out of the will-it-or-won’t-it-happen reform quagmire that we’re in. As Klein writes:
The history of state health reform initiatives (and there’s quite a history) is a tale of false hopes and great disappointments. The deck is stacked from the start, and the house—in this case the insurers, the providers, and other agents of the status quo—always wins.
More M&A means less R&D: Though it bills itself as the “world’s premier biopharmaceutical R&D organization” as a result of its merger with Wyeth, Pfizer Inc. nonetheless plans to chop up to $3 billion off its research and development budget. The combined $11 billion that Pfizer and Wyeth spent on R&D in 2008 could fall to $8 billion by 2012. The problem is that pharma companies simply haven’t been obtaining the results to justify all that spending. And the solution to that problem is good news for small drug development firms. For pharmaceutical companies, M&A, not R&D, is where it’s at. According to DataMonitor, “Two-thirds of Big Pharma sales growth over a 20-year period (1995 to 2014) will be driven entirely by M&A activity,” Pharma Marketing Blog reports.
That’ll bring a smile to your face if you’re a drug-development startup or investor, but it’ll make you want to update your resume if you work in research and development for a big pharmaceuticals firm. It’s all part of the convulsive change that’s forcing Big Pharma companies to rethink their business models.
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.
America’s most-talked-about ankle: We don’t discuss sports much around here, but in honor of the Super Bowl let’s take a moment to look at how one Indianapolis Colts pass-rusher extraordinaire has been treating his injured ankle in the hopes of a quick recovery. All-Pro defensive end Dwight Freeney, owner of the nation’s most-discussed ankle and member of the NFL’s All-Decade team, has been getting treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. What’s that? “A hyperbaric chamber delivers 100 percent oxygen at pressures greater than two to three times the normal atmospheric pressure to a patient in an enclosed chamber,” the Kansas City Start reports. Essentially the idea is that greater amounts of oxygen lead to a constriction of blood vessels, which decreases swelling. (An ESPN reporter spent some time in a hyperbaric chamber himself in a bit of “participatory journalism.”
A doctor says the chamber will do nothing to for Freeney’s torn ligaments, however. Freeney, who hasn’t practiced at all since the Colts won the AFC championship game two weeks ago, has been wearing flip-flops and a compression sock to all of his public appearances in the week, leading friends to tease him that he’s badly in need of a pedicure. For what it’s worth, Freeney reports that the ankle “is starting to feel a little better,” and thankfully, “starting to look like an ankle.” He plans to test it Friday and Saturday. Here’s hoping it’s doing well enough Sunday night to allow him to pound former Purdue star Drew Brees into the turf a few times.
