Posts

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

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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

7 days in healthcare (January 9th-15th, 2023)

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Summary

From the point of view of Biomedicine, everything seems to indicate that important advances in the diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases are coming in the not too distant future, with cancer vaccines, the new FLASH radiotherapy, the diagnostic revolution of virtual biopsies and the incorporation of certain devices (such as smart watches) in the prevention and monitoring of certain pathologies.

With regard to Global Health, it should be noted that climate change seriously threatens our health, according to The Lancet. Another important article in this magazine refers to the fact that the covid has revealed the inequalities between social groups and countries in dealing with the pandemic, as well as the absence of a global health architecture.

As for International Health Policy, with regard to covid, an editorial in The Lancet says that far from being overcome, 2023 brings new concerns, such as the impact of the situation in China or the new form XBB.1.5 in the United States. In China, the post-covid zero situation continues, officially acknowledging almost 60,000 deaths in the last month, despite the fact that the WHO insists on the request for more transparency in that country. In the United States, the abortion pill, according to the FDA, can already be purchased in pharmacies and by mail order, even in states where abortion is totally prohibited, which indicates the difficulty of shortcuts and of wanting to close doors to the field. In the United Kingdom the serious crisis of the NHS continues. The health minister of the shadow Labor cabinet publishes in the Financial Times an article with a long-term approach to reforms, something that, regardless of its content, we miss in Spain by all parties. An important editorial in The Economist where it says that part of the solution to the NHS’s problems involves solving the problems of Primary Care, proposing several changes, but without losing perspective that a large part of the problems are in hospitals, with the situation of waiting lists and emergencies. He also opposes the Labor Party’s proposal, made last week, to end the independent mini-company character of Primary Care in the UK, in order to make primary care physicians salaried. The Economist carries out a study that says that in the United Kingdom there are 260 deaths a week (more than 12,000 a year) as a result of delays in the emergency room. The British are turning more and more to private healthcare, as increase problems in the public sector. The EU devises plans to avoid medicine shortages and dependence on China.

If we talk about National Health Policy (Spain), the drop in the incidence of covid continues, despite the situation in China and the American variant called Kraken. The Primary Care strike in the Community of Madrid is reactivated and a strike is on the brink in 8 autonomous communities, while the emergencies are collapsed. Despite the plans, recent studies show that almost half of public health workers are temporary. In relation to the Strategic Plan of the pharmaceutical industry, both BIOSIM and AESEG, as well as the representatives of orphan drugs, position themselves with requests, in a clear attempt not to leave this plan only in the hands of large innovative companies, as suggested by the photo of La Moncloa, with Sánchez meeting with the main leaders of pharmaceutical multinationals.

In the field of Companies, internationally, relevant news for Pfizer, BioNTech and AstraZeneca. In our country, it is worth noting the steps taken by Viamed (new hospital in Tarragona), Ribera (great growth in turnover in 2022), Miranza (which continues its growth), Korian (which is preparing to integrate Group 5) and the CUN (which has just renovated part of its hospitalization area). For its part, KKR has completed the acquisition of IVI, an important in vitro fertilization company of Spanish origin.

Biomedicine

Global Health

International Health Policy

National health policy

Companies

7 days in healthcare (December 19th-25th, 2022)

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Summary

From the point of view of Biomedicine, it should be noted that 2022 has been an extraordinarily productive year from the point of view of the appearance of effective drugs, among others against obesity or different forms of cancer. mRNA vaccines open the way to new therapeutic approaches

With regard to Global Health, the British Medical Journal summarizes the human and health damage caused by the floods in Pakistan.

Regarding International Health Policy, discussions continue about the origin of the covid. President Biden is accused of complacency in saying as early as September that “the pandemic is over”, while the mortality continues. Everything seems to indicate that the end of the covid-zero policy in China is producing a large number of cases (millions in just one day), which is putting maximum pressure on the health system and, probably, since there are no reliable figures, with a high mortality. UK nurses and ambulance strike.

If we talk about National Health Policy (Spain), the incidence of covid has risen slightly in the last week, with a high death toll (241). The strike of Primary Care doctors in Madrid is paralyzed until January 11, to analyze the administration proposals. The Government undertakes to launch the working group for the elaboration of the Strategic Plan on the pharmaceutical industry, after the promises of investments in the next three years made by the heads of the most important pharmaceutical companies in a meeting in La Moncloa . Government and Community of Madrid launch the Neurotechnology Center.

In the field of Companies, internationally, it seems that private equity companies are oriented in the USA towards hospital emergencies. In Spain, Warren Buffet acquired the largest medical error insurance.

Biomedicine

Global Health

International Health Policy

National health policy

  • Pharmaceutical policy

Companies