Healthy Muse Healthcare News
A true Kodak moment: U.S. awards $775 million generic drug manufacturing contract.
The U.S. government is planning to tap Eastman Kodak Company (yes – THAT Kodak) to produce and manufacture pharmaceutical ingredients to be used in generic drugs. When the news broke Tuesday (7/28), Kodak’s share price jumped 300% and was halted over 20 times.
- Wait…why? Reducing out of pocket drug prices is very popular with voters. Especially older voters who actually vote and need lots of medications. The thinking here is that Kodak will increase the supply of generic drugs and address shortages in certain kinds, theoretically lowering costs.
Deeper: As a part of his 2020 platform, Biden wanted to address generic drug shortages by setting up a government program. This act with Kodak is essentially the same thing – just done through a private almost-dead company.
Trump’s rural health executive order.
Trump is expected to sign an executive healthcare order today – his fifth over the past two weeks.
- While the first four focused on drug pricing (read more about them here), this one focuses on expanding funding to give people more access to healthcare in rural areas.
Notably, the order also aims to extend certain telehealth policies for good.
Siemens Healthineers is buying Varian Medical Systems for $16.4 billion.
Siemens Healthineers, one of the largest medical device and technology firms, announced its intention to purchase Varian Medical Systems for $16.4 billion. If it closes (subject to regulatory approval, yada yada), the transaction would be the largest healthcare acquisition of 2020.
- Learn more – what does Varian Medical Systems do? The firm mainly develops medical devices for cancer treatments – like linear accelerators.
More healthcare entrants to the public market!
Ever heard of GoodRx? It’s a platform that provides coupons for drug savings, tracks prescription drug pricing, and more recently operates a telehealth platform (what health startup DOESN’T these days?) Anyway, the firm just filed its plans for IPO according to Reuters.
Other notable public transactions:
- Another telehealth company – SOC Telemed – is going public through an SPAC.
- Oak Street Health is planning to IPO any day now. The primary care startup is planning to raise $100 million to pay down debt.
Something to Muse: There are significantly more healthcare services / digital health firms going public this year.
Coronavirus
- The latest numbers here.
- Some good news – the US reported its smallest daily case increase in four weeks.
- Amid some intense controversy, schools are reopening with a plethora of COVID-related safety changes.
- The White House is launching its ‘Embers Strategy‘ which sends PPE and health officials to hotspots around the nation with the aim of stomping them out.
- What to expect for healthcare in the next stimulus package – more provider relief funds, more vaccine funding, and more testing. However, those stimulus talks are currently at a stalemate in Congress.
- The U.S. committed $2.1 billion to two more drug giants in its latest vaccine deal.
The next challenge with vaccines – first dibs, and distribution.
- Now that vaccines seem to be close to production, who gets first dibs on the limited vaccine supply?
- UPS is preparing freezer farms to distribute vaccines. As you can imagine, there’s a huge logistical issue involved in producing and shipping billions of doses.
Eli Lilly is debuting its COVID-19 antibody treatment in nursing homes.
Three months into COVID, and things are trending down (in a good way).
Quick Hits
Biz Hits
- A noteworthy deal this week: Humana invests $100 million in at-home primary care startup Heal.
- Ro is now valued at $1.5 billion.
- Oscar Health unveiled its $0 Virtual Primary Care program and 2021 expansion plans.
- Healthcare earnings are in full swing, and most firms weathered the second quarter COVID storm.
Policy Hits
- Hospitals lost their legal challenge to the 340B drug payment cut this week. It’s a 30% blow to the drug program.
- Hospitals are pushing Congress to forgive $100 billion they received in Medicare advanced payment loans
- The new stimulus (HEALS Act) would freeze Medicare part B premium payments for 2021. Trump wants this because his executive order to end PBM rebates would raise premiums and out of pocket costs for seniors. By freezing premiums for 2021, the best of both worlds (theoretically) occurs.
- Missouri is the next state up to consider expanding Medicaid.
- CMS is boosting payments to skilled nursing facilities by $750 million in 2021.
Other Hits
- The pandemic is boosting the public’s view of doctors (Axios)
- COVID-19 is saving insurers money — but don’t expect lower premiums (LA Times)
- Some good news: An Alzheimer’s blood test is within reach. (NY Times)
Thought-Provoking Editorials
- Trump’s drug price panic. (WSJ)
- Netflix’s wellness programming is irresponsible and misleading. (Vice)
Healthy Muse Top Picks
Read this great piece on how the world might produce the fastest vaccine in history by a landslide. ‘A huge experiment’: How the world made so much progress on a Covid-19 vaccine so fast. (Stat News)
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