Posts

7 days in healthcare (July 15th-21st, 2024)

 

Summary

Biomedicine

  • The benefits of GLP-1 medications, beyond obesity. These medications may be useful in a wide variety of chronic conditions. There are multiple clinical trials underway. The next decade is likely to allow for greater potential for GLP-1 drugs.
  • The fertility industry. Economic factors are delaying couples’ willingness to have children, which produces greater infertility in both men and women. 9% of births in advanced countries occur through in vitro fertilization (IVF), but the high cost of these treatments produces inequities in access, despite similar levels of infertility around the world. Better access is needed.

Global Health

  • The H5N1 bird flu virus can cause a human pandemic. So far there is no evidence that the virus has adapted to growing among humans, but this may change quickly. When COVID19 appeared, there was no natural immunity, no medications or vaccines. These three things exist today for H5N1.
  • The WHO and UNICEF warn of the high number of unvaccinated children. The goal of these institutions is to reduce the number of unvaccinated children by 2030, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

International health policy

  • The King’s Speech 2024 at the opening of the legislature. It is known that, in British protocol, the King expresses the government’s intentions. Key elements mentioned: 1. Waiting lists; 2. Focus on prevention; 3. Mental health, including a law change; 4. Increase in the age for authorization to purchase tobacco and limits on vaping; 5. Restrictions on junk food advertising.
  • Module 1 of the covid survey appears, on the resilience and preparedness of the United Kingdom to the pandemic. Please note that this Module 1 will be followed by several others on: governance; sanitary system; vaccines and therapies; purchasing and distribution; testing and isolation programs; Young people and children; the economic response to the pandemic. The structure of the report is problems and recommendations. This accumulation of reports that deal with the different aspects of the management of the pandemic has nothing to do with the disappointing Spanish report commissioned by the government, in which so many elements of analysis were missing (behavior of the different autonomous communities, international comparison, purchasing aspects and distribution of materials, mortality of professionals, etc.).
  • GPs (primary doctors) who use artificial intelligence improve the cancer detection rate by 8%. The application, called “C the Signs,” checks medical records. This software is used in 15% of healthcare facilities in England. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
  • United Health, the controller of the Chilean insurer Banmédica, is leaving Chile. United Health is the largest health conglomerate in the world and the interpretation is that, since Latin America is a marginal business for them, they prefer to get out of the regulatory instability that currently affects the continent. Doubts about the appearance of a buyer for the insurer Banmédica.
  • EU health priorities for the coming years. Van der Leyen sets the EU health agenda: mental health care, development of a critical medicines law and greater promotion of research with the development of a new technology law as well.

National Health Policy (Spain)

  • Strategic Plan of the pharmaceutical industry. Health has already sent Farmaindustria the draft of the sector’s Strategic Plan, a long-promised and delayed Plan that will remain to be seen in what remains in practice.
  • The government approves 172 million for Primary Care. Reaction: Primary care needs reform, not crumbs. That money is less than the one-year budget of many hospitals.
  • Health OPEs advance. The autonomous communities are advancing in the health OPEs, including the Canary Islands, Madrid, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón,… This news should be good, but in fact it is quite bad, due to the way the OPEs are done, with the risk of distorting multiple medical services.
  • Debate on doctors’ salaries in Spain. Statements by Antón Costas, president of the CES: “At the remuneration level, Spain does not fare badly in healthcare”, since Spain is among the countries where the remuneration is highest compared to the average salary (2.6 times in the case of those who practice general medicine and 3 times for those who practice other specialties). An interesting contribution to a debate that must continue. It is evident that to compare doctors’ salaries it is not worth doing so with absolute figures (as is done using Medscape reports), but rather with what they represent in the average salary of each country. However, it remains to be seen whether, even so, Spanish medical salaries withstand international comparison.On the other hand, it is proven that Spanish medical salaries fell in absolute numbers between 2011 and 2017.

Companies

  • International
    • The main medications on the 2030 horizon: Oncology, CNS and obesity.
  • National
    • Movements to take Grifols private continue. Grifols signs Morgan Stanley and Goldman before the takeover bid by the family and Brookfield.

Biomedicine

Global Health

International health policy

National health policy

Companies