A triumph for cystic fibrosis patients (and for Vertex)
Phase 3 confirmation that the benefits seen in early trials from triple-combination therapy of elexacaftor, tezacaftor, and ivacaftor, are susta…
Genomic applications and scalability
Two very different papers about applications of genomics, one for a very common clinical scenario, the other for an ultra-rare disease.
It is well known that while…
Best care vs. good care
In wealthy countries, the recommended standard of care can often lead to complex medication regimens requiring frequent follow-ups: this can be very challenging for people who …
Last month, Warburg Pincus closed on previously announced plans to acquire a major multi-specialty practice in northern New Jersey (Summit) and combine it with an urgent care network centered in the N…
Is the lack of new (non-viral) antibiotics a market failure?
A lament about the lack of success in getting the biopharma industry to invest sustainably in the development of new antibiotics against h…
MSFT’s pathbreaking alliances in healthcare services are impressive and well designed to grow adoption of their Azure cloud over the medium term. But if MSFT wants to be at the forefront of change an…
Huntington’s disease: light at the end of the tunnel?
The awful thing about Huntington’s is that in most cases, people know they are going progressively lose their mind at an early age, but there is …
A clinical vignette: the cases of Jane and Joe
Imagine if you will two individuals both at age 50. Jane is a project manager whose recent health care has focused on managing menopausal symptoms, a kn…
Summary
The Capital Region of Pennsylvania is shifting in “real time” from traditionally separate plan vs. plan competition and provider vs. provider competition to integrated vertical plan/provider …
TAVR for all?
TAVR has become the standard of care for patients who need an aortic value replacement but are at high/medium surgical risk. But what about those at low-risk? Two studies answer that qu…
Amazon’s healthcare play appears to be heavily focused on platforms rather than specific applications
They would prefer startups focus on elements that are truly differentiating for consumers and let …
By bringing together accountable-minded physicians, urgent care and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) on a national scale, OptumCare could prevent a lot of avoidable hospital care and move much of wha…
He’s dead, Jim
As previously widely advertised, the BACE-1 inhibitor verubecestat (Merck) (and in journal correspondence atabecestat, Janssen) has now failed in a population with very early signs of c…
Target assessment with genetic polymorphisms
Please bear with me for a long (but interesting!) story. Bempedoic acid (Esperion) is an inhibitor of ATP citrate lyase (ACLY), an enzyme in the cholestero…
Targeted conjugated cancer therapeutics – so few, but may be more soon
The idea that one could combine the precision of a targeted biologic with the potency of a traditional cytotoxic to demolish a tu…
With the closing of the CVS/AET and CI/ESRX combinations, healthcare services are now led by a triumvirate of vertically-oriented goliaths. And we can anticipate that there will be more care delivery …
The bundle
Unlike many other CMMI experiments, the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) program was a true randomized control trial in that participation was mandatory in a selection of metr…
Genetic trade secrets
In 2012, the US Supreme Court decided a case known as “Prometheus” establishing that therapeutic methods based on biomarkers were not patentable – this essentially blocked one of…
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