7 days in healthcare (September 15th-22nd, 2024)

/in /by

 

Summary

Biomedicine

  • Recognition for the scientists who developed anti-obesity drugs. Joel Habener (USA), Svetlana Mojsov (North Macedonia) and Lotte Bjerre Knudsen (Denmark), the parents of Ozempic, win the American Nobel Prize, the Lasker-DeBakey Prize for Clinical Medical Research 2024. Their scientific achievements are estimated to have allowed the discovery and development of FLP-1, the family of drugs that have revolutionized the treatment of obesity.
  • Two technologies directly related to health among the 10 emerging technologies, according to the World Economic Forum: AI for scientific discoveries (including new drugs); and, genomics for transplants, which will allow the successful implantation of genetically modified organs.
  • Schizophrenia, the new drug for the “cancer of psychiatry”. Hope is in sight, if the experimental drug KarXT is approved by the FDA, it will be the first treatment for schizophrenia in more than seven decades.

Global Health

  • A global threat on the rise: antibiotic resistance. The problem threatens to kill 208 million people in 25 years. According to the report published in The Lancet, these infections will increase dramatically among those over 70 years of age. A global threat on the rise.
  • The worst global health crisis is childhood malnutrition. New report from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. More than 400 million children do not get the nutrients they need to grow and develop. Climate change makes this more difficult to solve.
  • Strokes are skyrocketing worldwide. They already kill 7 million people, 70% more than in 1990. Most cases, up to 84%, are related to preventable risk factors.

International health policy

  • Health has a big impact on the 2024 US elections. The affordability of American health care is a very important issue for voters this year, second only to the economy, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Both Trump and Biden during his presidency have made efforts in this direction. The former signed the “No surprises” law, to avoid unexpected bills from insurers; while Biden approved the “Inflation Reduction Act”, which allows Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to set prices.
  • British Prime Minister’s speech on health. He refers to the NHS saying: “reform or die”.
  • End of the conflict and big salary increase for residents in England. They accept a 22% salary increase over the next two years.
  • Controversial appointment of the new European Union Health Commissioner. Olivér Várhelyi, new European Commissioner for Animal Health and Welfare. The new commissioner – not yet ratified by Parliament – is Hungarian and very close to the ultra-nationalist Viktor Orbán.

National Health Policy (Spain)

  • The new ALS law lacks funding. This makes it a dead letter. It seems that the application of the law will require 240 million a year, according to the confederation of ALS entities. Although ALS is a terrible disease and the sick require all the attention of the health system and this Law has generated great satisfaction among the sick and their families, it is more than debatable that the approach to health problems is to make specific laws for diseases. Why yes for ALS and not for quadriplegics, for example?
  • The Government presents amendments to the Draft Law on the State Agency for Public Health. It seems that the government parties, PSOE and Sumar, have presented a text with new amendments to the Draft Law on the State Agency for Public Health, with a focus on health in all policies, as well as health determinants and a One Health approach. The private sector is also included when it comes to providing information. Although these elements sound very good, there may be some doubts that an effective and powerful Agency will be approved, in view of the composition of the government’s support, with nationalist parties always opposed to strengthening the State, except for the “State structures” themselves.
  • Important speech by the Catalan Health Minister. She calls for 4 billion euros more in funding for the health sector. She advocates allocating 7% of the community’s GDP and reaching 20 billion euros, starting from the current 5.7%. According to her, Catalonia is the community that allocates the least percentage to Health (5.7%), only surpassed in this point by the community of Madrid (4.2%). In this appearance she presented the twelve priority objectives: 1. Healthy aging; 2. Integrated Social and Health Care; 3. Reinforcement of Primary Care; 4. Public Health; 5. Oral health and reduction of inequalities; 6. Certain measures regarding professionals; 7. Green agenda; 8. Digital transformation and innovation; 9. Evidence and evaluation; 10. Financing for the economic stability of the sector; and, 12. Reform and sustainability of the health system. Apart from the questionable approach of applying a percentage of GDP to health by communities (In which country is a percentage of GDP established by region for health care? This seems like a nationalist objective, directly translated from some of the approaches of the Pompeu Fabra University), the objectives seem reasonable, although perhaps a certain lack of ambition is lacking, particularly in the points referring to professionals and health system reforms.
  • Galicia wants to become a reference bioregion. Galicia announces the creation of a knowledge transfer office for the biotechnology sector.
  • Basque Country: commitment to reducing bureaucracy in Primary Care in 6 months. The objective is to reduce 40% of the bureaucratic activity that doctors must carry out in Primary Care.
  • AIREF rejects bilateral negotiations on regional financing. Its president demands that financing be addressed jointly, to ensure that the measures taken do not affect sustainability.
  • Disappointing new report on Spain from the European Observatory on Health Systems. The report has been prepared by the Aragonese Institute of Health Sciences. In general, the report has a descriptive character and is very little analytical and propositional. This is probably the focus of these reports from the European Observatory of Health Systems, but a more structured analysis methodology is missing, such as that used by Ezekiel Emanuel in his book on the analysis of health systems. It seems to be deduced from the report that everything is fine “except for a few things”, as Rajoy would say. It is not surprising that the Ministry of Health is applauding this report with its ears. Without a doubt, the high level of the authors is far above the results of the dispensable report.

Companies

  • International
    • The obesity market will have 16 new drugs in the next five years. Sales of these slimming drugs will reach 200 billion dollars in 2031, according to Morningstar. Although NovoNordisk and Lilly are currently the leaders and everything indicates that they will continue to be so, there will be many new entrants in this field: Boehringer Ingelheim, Zealand Pharma, Pfizer, Roche, Amgen and others.
  • National
    • Health insurance could raise prices due to rising costs. The increase in policies and the resulting increase in turnover barely manage to maintain the level of profitability
    • Pharmaceutical company CINFA invests 40 million in a new factory in Navarra.

Biomedicine

Global Health

International Health Policy

  • USA
    • The impact of health on the 2024 American elections. The affordability of American health care is a very important issue for voters this year, second only to the economy, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Both Trump during his presidency, and Biden, have made efforts in this direction. The former signed the “No surprises” law, to avoid unexpected bills from insurers; while Biden approved the “Inflation Reduction Act”, which allows Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to set prices (https://sph.emory.edu/features/2024/presidential-election/health-policy/)
    • The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) accuses Middlemen (the largest Pharmacy Benefit Managers) of inflating insulin prices (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/health/ftc-drug-price-inflation-insulin.html)

National health policy

  • New report on Spain from the European Observatory on Health Systems
    • The report has been prepared by the Aragonese Institute of Health Sciences. In general, the report has a descriptive character and is very little analytical and propositional. This is surely the approach of these reports from the European Observatory on Health Systems, but a more structured analysis methodology is missing, such as that used by Ezekiel Emanuel in his book on the analysis of health systems. It seems to be deduced from the report that everything is fine “except for a few things”, as Rajoy would say. It is not surprising that the Ministry of Health is applauding this report with its ears (https://www.consaludmental.org/publicaciones/Health-System-Review-2024.pdf)

Companies