'Number of people with dementia to rise 40% by 2030': WHO

 The number of people living with dementia worldwide is expected to increase by upward of 40 percent over the next several years, according to new data from the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The number of dementia patients is projected to rise to 78 million globally by 2030 and to 139 million by 2050, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a newly released analysis from WHO.  

Currently, more than 55 million people suffer from the degenerative neurological disease, WHO noted, an epidemic that the organization estimated costs $1.3 trillion a year on a global scale. 

"Dementia robs millions of people of their memories, independence and dignity, but it also robs the rest of us of the people we know and love," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "The world is failing people with dementia, and that hurts all of us."

World health officials said they are on pace to fall short of projected goals agreed upon in 2015 to combat dementia, adding that a majority of patients are in low- or middle-income countries. 

WHO representative Tarun Dua said during a news briefing that eliminating risk factors is key to stemming dementia, Reuters reported. 

"These are the things that we can do to promote our brain health and decrease the cognitive decline and the risk for dementia. These are things that can be started at a younger age," Dua said. 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/570502-number-of-people-with-dementia-to-rise-40-percent-by-2030-who

Biden admin eyes $3B for coronavirus vaccine supply chain

 The Biden administration is committing almost $3 billion to the coronavirus vaccine supply chain as the White House aims to expand U.S. manufacturing of the doses, federal officials announced on Thursday. 

The investment in the supply chain will start “in the coming weeks,” and will help companies implement new production lines and facilities, and will help create jobs, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said during a briefing. 

“This $3 billion investment in our vaccine supply chain will create thousands of the main American jobs, help us deliver on the president's commitment to be the arsenal of vaccines for the world and strengthen our long-term capabilities to respond to future threats,” Zients said.

The White House said officials will choose the companies that will receive funding in the “next several weeks.”

Zients said the U.S. has provided financial support for vaccine manufacturing that extends across the whole supply chain, including vaccine manufacturing equipment, inputs and supplies, which he said has sped up production. 

“These actions have paid off as American companies have significantly increased their capacity to produce vaccines for the US, and for the world,” he said.

“We're doing everything in our power to ensure everyone, both here at home and around the world, has access to vaccines, because more vaccinations are how we end this pandemic,” Zients added. 

In total, the White House has already vowed to donate more than 600 million doses globally, with 130 million doses shipped so far to 90 countries, officials said.

Last month, 22 House Democrats called for the U.S. to create a “Marshall Plan” to boost global vaccinations and to provide more funding to the supply chain to manufacture more doses.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/570636-biden-admin-announces-3b-for-vaccine-supply-chain

Pentagon to increase mental health outreach following Afghanistan collapse

 The Pentagon this month will ramp up mental health outreach to veterans and service members involved in the recently ended Afghanistan War.

Many current and former service members in the past several weeks have expressed frustration, disappointment and despair with how the 20-year conflict ended, a disastrous conclusion that has triggered anxiety and mental health issues.

With September designated as suicide prevention month at the Pentagon, “we want to make clear that there are resources available, and I think you’ll hear more from department leadership communicating that across the force,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Thursday.

“The health, safety and well-being of our military community is essential to the readiness of the total force,” Kirby said. “We all recognize that the events in just the recent past, certainly the last month or so, will factor in and potentially bear heavily on some of our Afghan war vets.”

After the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15, the Department of Veterans Affairs saw an uptick in calls to the crisis hotline.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley on Thursday said he has “pain and anger” over the events in Afghanistan “over the last 20 years and over the last 20 days.”

“I have all the same emotions, and I’m sure the secretary does, and anyone who served. And I commanded troops. And I wasn’t born a four-star general. I have walked the patrols and been blown up and shot at and RPG’d and everything else. My pain and anger comes from the same as those grieving families, the same as those soldiers that are on the ground,” Milley told reporters at the Pentagon.

“When we see what has unfolded over the last 20 years and over the last 20 days, that creates pain and anger. And mine comes from 242 of my soldiers killed in action over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan. So yeah, I have that,” he added.

Kirby declined to go into details as to any specific mental health outreach efforts but said “you’ll continue to hear throughout this month additional messages from department leadership about that issue but also just writ large how that ties into mental health in particular.”

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/570663-pentagon-to-increase-mental-health-outreach-following-afghanistan-collapse

Alkermes cut to Underperform from Neutral by B of A

 Target $27

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=ALKS

Labcorp Raises Minimum Hourly Wage to $15 Per Hour

 Labcorp (NYSE: LH), a leading global life sciences company, today announced it has increased the minimum hourly wage for United States (U.S.)-based, non-union employees to $15, effective September 2021.

"At the core of our ability to innovate and meet customer and patient needs is the diverse talent that we have across all of Labcorp," said Adam Schechter, chairman and CEO of Labcorp. "To that end, we will continue to invest in our employees. I am grateful for my colleagues at Labcorp who play such a critical role in delivering on our mission—through our continued fight against COVID-19 and in providing our patients and customers with the answers they need to make clear, confident health care decisions."

Labcorp has received recognition for its efforts to create an environment that supports the wellbeing of its employees. This includes being honored with a platinum Best Employers: Excellence in Health & Well-being Award by the Business Group on Health, receiving a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index (CEI) by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, becoming a CEO Roundtable on Cancer Gold Standard employer, and being named to the Forbes World’s Best Employers list.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/labcorp-raises-minimum-hourly-wage-203300679.html

Caribou Publishes on High Specificity Genome Editing with Proprietary Tech

  Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:CRBU), a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company, announced today the publication of data demonstrating that its proprietary CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA (chRDNA) guide technology provides significantly improved specificity compared to all-RNA guides, thereby enabling high levels of intended genomic edits in cells while eliminating or minimizing inadvertent off-target events. Higher specificity is a key advantage in the development of therapeutics and of critical importance in therapies that contain multiple genome edits.

The data, which provide a mechanistic framework to elucidate the specificity of chRDNA guides, were published in an article entitled, “Conformational control of Cas9 by CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA guides mitigates off-target activity in T cells,” in the journal Molecular Cell.

“Caribou is currently developing unique allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies with multiple genome edits designed to enhance their persistence in patients,” said Steve Kanner, Ph.D., Caribou’s chief scientific officer. “By altering the position and number of DNA residues in our chRDNA guides, we readily achieve optimal on-target editing and minimize unintended off-target edits that may be problematic in therapeutic applications.”

“These data demonstrate that our chRDNA editing platform provides an efficient and highly customizable approach to develop sophisticated allogeneic CAR-T cells for the treatment of hematologic malignancies,” said Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D., Caribou’s president and chief executive officer. “The first of Caribou’s multiplex-edited product candidates, CB-010, is being evaluated in an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and we look forward to initial clinical data in 2022.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/caribou-biosciences-announces-publication-data-200500574.html

Can Vaccine Help Long Term COVID-19 Symptoms? UK Study Encouraging

 

• According to findings from a new U.K. study, along with reducing the risk of severe disease and hospitalization, COVID-19 vaccines can also lower the odds of having long-term COVID-19 symptoms.
• "We found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved by having two vaccine doses," citing researchers, reported CNN. 
• The study result suggests that the risk of long COVID is reduced in individuals who have received double vaccination.
• From institutions in the U.S. and the U.K., the researchers analyzed self-reported data from adults in the U.K. who shared any COVID-19 symptoms using a mobile phone app.
• The data included more than 1.2 million adults who reported receiving the first dose of a vaccine. Among them, 0.5% tested positive for an infection after receiving that first dose. 
• Among nearly 1 million adults who reported receiving a second dose of vaccine, only 0.2% or 2,370 tested positive.
• Compared with no vaccination, vaccination was associated with reduced odds of hospitalization or having more than five symptoms in the first week of illness following a first or second dose.
• The researchers found reduced odds of long-term symptoms lasting 28 days or more following a second vaccine dose.

https://www.benzinga.com/general/biotech/21/09/22784902/can-vaccine-help-in-long-term-covid-19-symptoms-uk-study-gives-encouraging-answer