The end of the year automatically spurs one to pour a drink and survey the year. For the editorial team at MedCity News, it’s no different. And it’s always the same question: What stories resonated the most with our readers, traffic-wise? To make the cut, the story had to be published this year. Here’s a roundup of the top five spanning drug patent expirations to a certain blood testing company.
Which drugs are going off-patent in 2016?
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.
It was a big year for patents on blockbuster drugs to expire such as AstraZeneca’s Crestor and Seroquel XR. Additionally, four major HIV drugs also had patents expire. But just as much as these news items, this story also demonstrates the power of a well-assembled infographic.
Why did HealthSpot fail? The telemedicine industry weighs in
It’s inevitable that many of the digital health startups, including those we have covered, will not succeed. The trouble is that when companies fail, they often just quietly fade into the sunset. Soon after MedCity News learned of HealthSpot’s demise we asked industry insiders why. The company’s kiosk model came in for criticism as too expensive, as did the management team’s lack of telemedicine experience. But the company’s shortcomings also reflected the difficult challenge of creating a successful consumer engagement platform.
20 key players in the direct-to-consumer lab testing market
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.
The summary of direct-to-consumer laboratory testing offered a useful reference guide to the different approaches these companies are taking based on a research report compiled by Kalorama Information. The sector is expected to grow into a $350 million industry by 2020. The list offers a snapshot of the direct-to-consumer lab testing landscape — a market split between traditional diagnostics purveyors and newer players providing genomic screening.
Biogen VP: Google wants to be a payer – and take over CMS
When Adam Koppel, Biogen’s vice president of corporate development and strategy, revealed that the secret ambition for Alphabet — the parent company for Google and other businesses — is that they want to become a payer, it was a pretty surprising revelation. He made the big reveal at the Harvard Business School Healthcare Conference. Biogen has a partnership with Verily, Alphabet’s life sciences arm – they use sensors and data analytics to understand how multiple sclerosis presents itself differently from patient to patient. Koppel said that by pooling big data and analyzing it, the company could figure out real-life outcomes in actual people. It may have been a splashy comment but little more was said on the subject this year. Still, CB Insights did assemble a useful table on the insurance tech companies that Alphabet’s venture investment arm GV and growth equity fund CapitalG have snapped up.
Theranos Doomsday Clock: A full timeline of its rise and fall
No diagnostics company had a year like Theranos, a cautionary tale in corporate governance and what can happen when hype overshadows interest in clinical validation. Although The Wall Street Journal’s series kicked off last fall, the fallout from those revelations mostly took place this year. U.S. health inspectors found deficiencies at the diagnostic companies’ laboratories. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Theranos had substandard blood testing practices. Walgreens terminated its contract with Theranos. There were fines, lawsuits, bans from operating labs. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some more revelations to come in the new year.
Some stories that resonated with readers that didn’t make the top five included:
Here’s a photo of athenahealth’s CEO trying to save a life (literally)
This article captured how Jonathan Bush tried to resuscitate a man who collapsed on a San Francisco street during the JP Morgan Healthcare conference.
Why Intermountain chose Omada Health to provide diabetes prevention services
The partnership between Omada Health, the American Medical Association, and Intermountain Healthcare marked the first time the AMA partnered with a digital health company. Elizabeth Joy, medical director for community health and clinical nutrition at Intermountain Healthcare, highlighted how the partnership came into being in a phone interview.
Can Genalyte achieve what Theranos touted?
An interview with Genalyte CEO Cary Gunn highlighted the strategy of a Theranos competitor to make routine blood tests painless.
