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Sunday, July 7, 2019

The demographics of Medicare for All fans

Medicare for All enthusiasts tend to be young and white, according to a poll by the right-leaning group One Nation.

One Nation survey of 1,211 registered likely “non-hard partisan” voters in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin conducted April 13-17, 2019; margin of error ±2.8 percentage points; Chart: Axios Visuals
Why it matters: Politically, it means embracing Medicare for All may not be very helpful for Democrats hoping to make inroads with older and minority voters.
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27 healthcare-related blockchain developments in 2019

While healthcare organizations vary with blockchain implementation, the decentralized ledger technology has made waves in 2019.
Below is a roundup of the blockchain developments in healthcare this year.
1. Solve.Care, a global healthcare blockchain platform, has partnered with Cyber Physical Chain, a company that builds new infrastructure for “internet of things.”
2. A new blockchain platform is being designed to help improve the reimbursement processing, linking payments to patient outcomes.
3. The National Cancer Institute approved a program June 21 to create a blockchain-based system that allows users to share clinical data.
4. Microsoft was the latest technology company to join the Hyperledger community for open source blockchain projects, the company announced in a blog post June 18.
5. IBM launched an upgraded version of its enterprise blockchain platform on June 18.
6. On June 13, IBM, KPMG, Merck and Walmart announced that they were selected by the FDA to evaluate the use of blockchain for identifying, tracking and tracing prescription drugs.
7. Microsoft plans to integrate new blockchain and artificial intelligence features to its Power Platform, the company announced June 10.
8. Blockchain developer Solve.Care plans to release a network for diabetic patients in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and the Arizona Care Network.
9. Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin in partnership with the Austin Blockchain Collective will explore blockchain’s potential in healthcare.
10. Walmart was the latest company to join the MediLedger consortium, a collaborative working to build a blockchain that will be designed to track and verify prescription drugs.
11. Salesforce released its first blockchain solution May 29 that is built on the Hyperledger Sawtooth platform.
12. IBM has partnered with Samsung SDS to strengthen an existing blockchain-based hyperledger while also improving other blockchain ecosystems.
13. Solve.Care, a blockchain-focused startup, is in the final stage of developing its Book-a-Ride card, a tool that will allow customers to schedule transportation to health-related appointments.
14. Syniverse and IBM teamed up to develop an open-source blockchain network that aims to validate wholesale billing and charging processes.
15. To reduce costs, errors and inefficiencies, Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies have joined a blockchain project led by technology company Chronicled.
16. Companies looking to develop and grow blockchain networks can now do so using Amazon Managed Blockchain, which Amazon Web Services launched on the East Coast on April 30.
17. Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health and Raleigh, N.C.-based WakeMed Health & Hospitals are collaborating with blockchain and pharmacy companies to better track prescriptions.
18. Healthcare technology solutions provider Nasco teamed up with Express Scripts and three other providers to form a blockchain coalition, known as Coalesce Health Alliance.
19. Health data companies Bitfury and Longenesis developed a blockchain-based consent management solution that is designed to streamline data collection for medical research.
20. Startup Healthereum has created a blockchain-based mobile app that rewards patients with digital tokens for showing up to their appointments.
21. Pharmaceutical companies such as Genentech and AmerisourceBergen Corp. are testing different blockchains to determine whether the technology can track counterfeit drugs.
22. Startup CoverUS has developed a blockchain-supported platform that allows patients to sell their medical information to providers.
23. Researchers from UC San Francisco proposed using a blockchain-powered system to share medical data.
24. Cigna and Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare joined a collaborative blockchain project designed to improve transparency and interoperability in the healthcare space.
25. Kalibrate Blockchain rolled out a new program for hospitals in various markets that allows them to license its mobile app
26. HSBlox launched its CuraBlox solution, which leverages blockchain technology to improve bundled-payments.
27. Aetna, Anthem, Health Care Service Corp., PNC Bank and IBM unveiled a new collaborative blockchain project Jan. 24 designed to improve transparency and interoperability in healthcare.
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Biden’s Healthcare Idea For Undocumented Already Exists

Former vice president Joe Biden’s support of emergency healthcare services for undocumented immigrants is an idea already woven into U.S. health policy and offered voluntarily by nonprofit hospitals.
 “In an emergency, they should have healthcare. Everybody should,” former vice president Joe Biden told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Friday, clarifying his position on just how much healthcare undocumented immigrants should be allowed under U.S. law. “How do you say ‘you’re undocumented, I’m gonna let you die, man?'”
Just how much healthcare undocumented immigrants should receive has been grabbing headlines lately among Democrats seeking their party’s nomination in 2020 for the U.S. Presidency.
But emergency care and treatment at hospitals as well as federally-subsidized community health centers is already available and provided to undocumented immigrants.
“Whatever their situation under the law, the 11.3 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States still need, and sometimes get, health care,” Dr. Alan Taylor Kelley, of the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation wrote in a recent column discussing undocumented care for immigrants.
“Even if they don’t have health insurance, federal law requires hospitals to care for them in emergencies,” Kelley said. “They can turn to safety-net clinics for basic needs.”
Undocumented immigrants are also receiving support from Medicaid for poor Americans and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
“Medicaid payments for emergency services may be made on behalf of individuals who are otherwise eligible for Medicaid but for their immigration status,” The Kaiser Family Foundation said in a report on healthcare coverage for immigrants published in February. “These payments cover costs for emergency care for lawfully present immigrants who remain ineligible for Medicaid as well as undocumented immigrants. Since 2002, states have had the option to provide prenatal care to women regardless of immigration status by extending CHIP coverage to the unborn child.”
States also have varying degrees of health coverage under locally administered programs for undocumented immigrants and hospitals voluntarily include such care for the undocumented as uncompensated expenses when they justify their tax-exemptions. The American Hospital Association said tax-exempt hospitals provided $95 billion in total benefits to their communities in 2016 alone, citing the industry’s most recent report.
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TYME Updates at ESMO GI 2019 from Pancreatic Cancer Phase 2 Study

  • In this poor prognosis population, SM-88 demonstrated median overall survival (OS) of 6.4 months as of April 25, 2019
  • Efficacy indicators showed strong correlation with greater overall survival (OS). These indicators included achieving stable disease (SD) or better and decreases in circulating tumor cells (CTCs)
  • Patients who achieved SD or better had a statistically significant (p=0.02) improvement in survival with a 92% reduction in risk of death
  • Patients who achieved at least an 80% reduction in CTC burden demonstrated a 60% decrease in risk of death
  • The study supports SM-88’s well-tolerated safety profile, with only 4% of patients having a serious adverse event (SAE) that was deemed to be at least possibly related to SM-88
  • Based on these results, TYME plans to initiate a randomized pivotal trial for use of SM-88 in patients with pancreatic cancer in Q3’2019
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Celyad to Review Clinical Update from ESMO 21st World GI Congress

Celyad (Euronext Brussels and Paris, and Nasdaq: CYAD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of CAR-T cell-based therapies, today announced that Professor Dr. Eric Van Cutsem from Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven (UZ Leuven) will present data from the NKG2D-based autologous and allogeneic CAR-T candidates, CYAD-01 and CYAD-101, respectively, at the upcoming European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 21st World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer (WCGIC) to be held on July 3-6, 2019, in Barcelona, Spain. Following the oral and poster presentations at WCGIC, Celyad’s management team will host a conference call to discuss the initial clinical results from the SHRINK and alloSHRINK trials.
Filippo Petti, CEO of Celyad noted “We are honored to have Professor Dr. Van Cutsem present preliminary data from our SHRINK and alloSHRINK trials, including an initial glimpse of data from the industry’s first off-the-shelf investigational non-gene edited CAR-T candidate, CYAD-101. The comparable trial designs investigating similar NKG2D-based CAR-T therapies should provide for a unique comparison of an autologous and allogeneic engineered cell therapy approach for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.”
Poster Oral Presentation
Title: Phase 1 studies assessing the safety and clinical activity of autologous and allogeneic NKG2D-based CAR-T therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer
Abstract: SO-009
Presenter: Eric Van Cutsem, M.D., Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven (UZ Leuven)
Date: Friday, July 5, 9:00 a.m. CEST
Location: Auditorium B, Level 0
The poster (same title, same number) will be presented in the Exhibit Hall, Level 0 on Friday, July 5, 2019 from 10:35am – 11:05am CEST and 04:35pm – 05:05pm CEST.
Conference Call / Webcast Details
A conference call including a Q&A session will be held by the Company on Friday July 5, 2019 at 2:00 pm CEST / 8:00 am EDT.
The conference call can be accessed using the details below:
United States:     +1 877 407 9208
International:      +1 201 493 6784
Conference ID:   13692101
Alternatively, participants may also access an audio webcast of the event using the link below:  http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=135092
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Saturday, July 6, 2019

Bayer Seeks to Reassure Investors on Roundup Settlement Talks

Bayer AG Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann sought to reassure German investors about the prospects of settling litigation over the company’s Roundup weedkiller, an effort to regain their confidence after an unprecedented rebuke at the company’s shareholder meeting in April.
The embattled CEO held a series of meetings in Frankfurt this week with key shareholders, according to people familiar with the situation. The outreach comes as the company battles thousands of lawsuits from people who say the weedkiller caused their cancer. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts have said the cases could result in a settlement of as much as $10 billion.
Baumann told investors that Ken Feinberg, the high-profile mediator appointed to lead settlement talks for some of the cases, met with both parties and wouldn’t have agreed to take the job if he didn’t think he could broker a deal, according to one of the people, who asked not to be named because the investor discussions were private.
Bayer is trying to win over shareholders concerned that it mishandled the fallout over Roundup after acquiring the herbicide last year in the $63 billion purchase of Monsanto Co. The German company rejects claims that the weedkiller causes cancer and has vowed to keep fighting after losing three trials since the Monsanto deal closed last summer.
The meetings came at an auspicious time. A federal judge said he’ll probably reduce — but not throw out entirely — an $80 million jury verdict against Bayer in the second case to go to trial over claims that Roundup causes cancer.

Damage Award

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said at a hearing Tuesday in San Francisco that part of the damages awarded to a California man for his pain and suffering may have been miscalculated and that the $75 million portion of the verdict intended to punish the company may be too high.
Bayer is working to rehabilitate its image as it battles mounting suspicion over the safety of Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate. Austria’s parliament earlier this week voted to ban herbicides containing glyphosate, a first in the European Union.
Questioned by a shareholder about the Austrian decision, Baumann largely dismissed it, saying that farmers will have a difficult time getting by without glyphosate, one of the people said.
The meetings follow a vote against Baumann by shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in April, where a majority of investors opposed absolving the CEO and other managers of responsibility for their actions in the Monsanto takeover.
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Biotech week ahead, July 8

Biotech stocks saw muted sentiment in the holiday-shortened week ending July 5 after a strong rebound in the later part of the previous week.
Activity was light, although news on clinical trial readouts continued to flow.
The following are catalytic events that could impact biotech stocks in the unfolding week:

Conferences

14th Euro-Global Gastroenterology Conference: July 8-9 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Clinical Trial Readouts

Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc ITCI 1.18% is scheduled to release top-line data from a Phase 3 study dubbed 401 that is evaluating its ITI-007 as a monotherapy for bipolar depression.
The company will also release top-line data from another late-stage study dubbed 404 that is evaluating ITI-007 as a monotherapy for bipolar depression.

Earnings

AngioDynamics, Inc. ANGO 0.99%: Wednesday, July 10 before the market open.
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