7 days in healthcare (October 28th-November 2nd, 2024)

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Summary

Biomedicine

  • ADHD (adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) should not be treated as a disease. Until now, a binary scheme was applied, either you had or you didn’t have ADHD. Today we know that there is a wide spectrum of severity, like any other ordinary human trait. With certain aids, which should be in schools and workplaces, this problem can be addressed.
  • Hope for rare diseases. On October 28, the European Rare Disease Research Alliance was launched, an ambitious initiative with a budget of more than 380 million euros and which brings together 170 organizations with the aim of promoting research, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases. Several countries want the UN World Assembly in 2025 to adopt a resolution on rare diseases.

Global Health

  • Tuberculosis: the number of cases in the world is stabilizing. The incidence of the disease is 8.5% lower than in 2015, but far from the objectives that had been set for 2025.
  • Deaths of elderly people due to extreme weather are increasing. The review of more than 100 scientists published in The Lancet shows how climate change threatens survival and quality of life.

International health policy

  • Shortage of medicines in the USA and Canada. A shortage is defined as when supply is below demand. In the USA at the end of 2023 there were 300 medicines in short supply. Low prices and lack of competition are cited as the main reasons for this shortage.
  • Special budget for NHS waiting lists. The NHS will receive 1.57 billion pounds to address waiting lists.
  • Alarm in Germany over the high burden of sick leave. Some studies say that fewer days off work would have prevented the decline of the German economy in the last year.

National Health Policy (Spain)

  • The DANA causes high mortality and destruction in several cities in the Valencian Community. According to The Economist, there have been widespread accusations that the warning calls issued by the authorities were very late and, if they had been made more quickly, many deaths would have been avoided. The central government has refused to establish a state of alarm, arguing that this is the responsibility of the Autonomous Community, which must ask for help if it needs it, which is reminiscent of the attitude in the covid policy, in which, at one point, the central government got out of the way, citing reasons of “co-governance”. According to experts, after 72 hours the dangers of infections worsen. COFARES sets up a device to ensure the supply of medicines.
  • Andalusia involves pharmacies in vaccination to improve coverage. The Council of Pharmacists of Andalusia and the Ministry of Health have signed an agreement in this regard.

Companies

  • International
    • The paradoxical opacity of the price of medicines. An OECD report explains that governments want greater transparency in the price of medicines but, at the same time, they refuse to report on what they pay.
  • National
    • Diagnostic imaging billed almost 400 million euros in 2023 in Spain. According to a DBK report, growth stands at 4% annually in the last two years.

Biomedicine

Global Health

International health policy

  • USA
    • Article from The Lancet: Harris or Trump: health after the American elections. This article discusses the different approaches of Harris and Trump, although both will be qualified by the majority of the chambers, although it seems that the Republicans can retain their majority in the House of Representatives and also reach the majority in the Senate (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02413-9/fulltext)
    • The shortage of medicines in the USA and Canada. A shortage is defined as supply being below demand. In the USA at the end of 2023 there were 300 medicines in short supply. Low prices and lack of competition are cited as the main reasons for this shortage (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2825539)

National health policy

  • AESEG
    • AESEG (generics employers’ association) sets out the challenges and proposals for generics (https://diariofarma.com/2024/10/29/autonomia-estrategica-aeseg-expone-los-desafios-y-propuestas-para-los-genericos). Access to the AESEG report entitled “European strategic autonomy”. Outlook for the generic drug sector in Spain (https://www.aeseg.es/informe-autonomia-estrategica-europea.pdf)

Companies