7 days in healthcare (August 25th-September 1st, 2024)

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Summary

Biomedicine

  • AI to predict dementia. Scientists are using AI to analyse 1.6 million brain scans to develop predictive tools for dementia. The aim is to create digital tools that radiologists can use to determine their risk of dementia and diagnose the disease earlier.
  • The obesity drug Wegovy prevents deaths from Covid. People who take the medication do not avoid Covid disease, but after a large trial, it is shown that their mortality is much lower, for reasons that are unknown. The original work has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
  • Leading French doctors defend phage therapy, as an alternative to antibiotics. In a column in Le Monde, a group of doctors advocates the creation of a public structure for the production of bacteriophage viruses, as an alternative to antibiotics. Discovered by Félix d’Hérelle in 1915, this therapy has not been considered in the West to the benefit of antibiotics, whose difficulties and limitations are being seen.

Global Health

  • The disappointing international response to mpox. The world has another opportunity to demonstrate collective commitment to addressing this international health crisis. The challenge is to provide effective diagnostics, vaccines and treatments to regions with poor health infrastructure – and to do so more quickly and efficiently than during the Covid pandemic. The signs so far are not encouraging.
  • The war in Sudan is the world’s problem. Although this conflict has received much less attention than the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the truth is that it is much more serious in every sense, with a threat of millions of deaths this year from hunger. Middle Eastern states and Russia are sponsoring this conflict with impunity. Western countries look the other way and the United Nations is paralyzed. Sudan has suffered a civil war since its independence in 1956.
  • People should be paid for plasma. In a forceful editorial, The Economist argues that plasma donations should be paid for, a component of blood that is a crucial ingredient in several medicines and is in short supply worldwide. 80% of plasma comes from five countries, precisely those where donors are paid: USA, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Hungary. Those who oppose paid donation give two reasons: safety (especially worrying after the scandal in the United Kingdom) and equity (since it is feared that it will be the poor who allow access to their veins).

International health policy

  • Trump said last Thursday during the campaign that he wants to make IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatments free for all Americans. Until now, the simple authorization of IVF was a highly debated issue among Republicans, who entered into the controversy of the destruction of eggs, which some consider to be people, with all the ethical problems that their destruction or storage entails. The New York Times comments on the major problems that this initiative would pose, from economic to legal, since this would be the only free health care service for all Americans. But it seems that anything goes in the campaign.
  • The future of Medicare in the USA. The debate is between Medicare Advantage (more expensive and with the involvement of private insurers) and traditional Medicare. Important review on the subject published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Medicare is the largest and most important public health service in the USA.
  • Health consequences of delaying the retirement age in China. The impacts on health of delaying the retirement age in China are considered, where life expectancy has grown a lot and retirement is very early: 60 years for men and 50 or 55 years for women.
  • The WHO promotes a strategic plan to stop the Mpox outbreak that requires 135 million dollars of investment. The project covers from September 2024 to February 2025 and focuses on implementing prevention, preparation and response strategies.

National Health Policy (Spain)

  • Sumar has been blocking the Public Health Agency in Congress for six months. After the withdrawal of the amendments to the whole by PNV and Junts, the deadline for partial amendments has been extended up to 20 times. Sumar requests continuous extensions to present partial amendments, which it finally does not present, due to lack of support. • Fitch sees risks that the financing pact for Catalonia will take resources away from the rest of the communities. The American rating agency sees risks that the pact will take resources away from the system to level out public services.
  • The Government is preparing a record budget to save MUFACE. The offer will arrive in October and it is said that it will represent a strong increase. The State pays a premium of around 900 euros for each civil servant, while public spending on health (excluding pharmacy) is 1,674 euros. The insurers had requested an indexation with this expenditure, accepting 20% ​​less, which would be around 1,350 euros, 50% more.
  • Aid to rural pharmacies by the Provincial Council of Burgos. Pharmacies are not immune to the serious problem currently affecting rural Spain. The Provincial Council of Burgos has launched a series of aids to guarantee their survival: 1,500 euros for those located in municipalities with less than 1,000 inhabitants and 2,000 euros for VEC (Compromised Economic Viability).
  • Spain needs 25% more beds in residences. Which means about 125,000 more places than the 387,000 currently existing

Companies

  • International
    • From the covid vaccine to the cancer vaccine. Both Moderna and BioNTech are betting on cancer vaccines. BioNTech and its American rival Moderna, whose shares have fallen by around 80% since the peak of the pandemic in 2021, are using mRNA technology to generate cancer vaccines. Although it is a very attractive and exciting path, it is still full of problems and many pharmaceutical companies are betting on more conventional oncological treatments.
    • Lilly and NovoNordisk will be the champions in the battle in the field of obesity. They will capture 94% of sales.
  • National
    • The crisis continues at Grifols. Brookfield is looking for sovereign funds to join the takeover bid for Grifols.
    • Esteve wants to sell off its respiratory therapy subsidiary. This subsidiary (Esteve Teijin) had recently seen growth in sales, although a drop in profits.

Biomedicine

Global Health

International health policy

  • China
    • Health consequences of delaying the retirement age. The health impacts of delaying the retirement age in China are considered, where life expectancy has grown a lot and retirement is very early: 60 years for men and 50 or 55 years for women (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01777-X/fulltext)

National health policy

Companies

 

This post is also available in: Spanish